


Meet Me By The Lake

by sitswithcats



Category: Bandom, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-26
Updated: 2015-05-07
Packaged: 2018-03-25 15:31:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 21,824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3815629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sitswithcats/pseuds/sitswithcats
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mikey sneaks out of his house late at night and meets Pete in a park, a friendship blossoming from then on</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea how long this is going to be or the posting schedule but I’ll finish this before starting a new work.   
> In this story Frank is older than Mikey.  
> For reference here at each grade they’re in.  
> Gerard: Freshmen in college  
> Frank: Senior in high school  
> Andy: Junior in high school  
> Joe: Junior in high school  
> Mikey: Sophomore in high school  
> Pete: Sophomore in high school  
> Patrick: Sophomore in high school  
> Edit: I wrote this story over two years ago and came back to correct continuity errors and grammar mistakes, in the process it made the story much longer than the original, I hope everyone likes it <3  
> Edited on January 18th, 2018

“Mom, I’m sorry, I’m trying i swear.” Mikey says to his mother. “My teacher is really hard to understand, she doesn’t teach the material in ways that I can learn, it’s really hard.”

They’re in a fight over Mikey’s ending grade in chemistry, a D on his semester report card isn’t something his mother wants to see.

“You’re sorry? You can’t possibly be trying if this is what your grade is!”

“I am trying, I swear.” Mikey defends himself, he knows better than to raise his voice the same way his mother is.

He really is trying in his chemistry class, just as hard as he is in all of his other classes where he has all A’s and B’s. Chemistry is a difficult subject for him, no matter how hard he tries in the class, and on top of how rude is teacher is, it results in horrible grades for him.

“No, you’re not, and now you’re talking back to me. Ever since your brother left for college you have been so moody.”

“This has nothing to do with Gerard!” Mikey finally snaps, he tried to hold himself back from yelling but he can’t help himself after that comment. “I’m the same as I’ve always been, you just never noticed before!”

“That’s it, young man. Go to your room!” His mother yells and points to the staircase.

“This is ridiculous, mom-”

“Now!” She shouts.

“Fine!” He shouts back, stomping up the stairs. 

He slams his bedroom door behind him and falls onto his bed, landing face first and screams into his pillow.

“Well, I’m fucking sorry that I’m not some kind of academic genius or some fucking artistic prodigy like you fucking want me to be.” Mikey says bitterly to himself, angry at his mother for not understanding the situation. “It’s a fucking D in the first semester of chemistry. It’s fixable. D’s are passing anyway, at least I didn’t fail.”

He screams again into his pillow and lays there for a while, not doing anything. After what seemed like just a moment of lying down, he lifts his head up and checks his alarm clock, seeing hours have passed by.

12:12 AM

“Shit,” he mumbles, rubbing his eyes, “I fell asleep.”

He feels wet spots on his cheeks, looking down he sees wiped tears on his fingers. He grumbles and rubs the rest of the tears into his skin.

“Seriously Mikey, pull yourself together.” He sighs to himself. He sits up and crosses his legs. “You know what. Fuck this.” 

He swings his legs over the side of the bed, setting his feet on the floor. He quietly stands and walks around the room carefully, avoiding creaking floorboards, not wanting his parents to know he’s moving around his room.

He strips off the clothes he wore to school and puts on the first sweatshirt he sees and a thick pair of sweatpants. He tiptoes to his bedroom window and cracks it open, staying as quiet as he possibly can.

His room, being on the side of the house, is easy to sneak out of. Once the window is open all of the way he turns around and goes out backwards, legs first. He slides down until he’s hanging by just his fingertips then jumps the rest of the way down.

He walks away from his house, not looking back. He walks down the street and out of his neighborhood and into the next, not bothering to remember the way he came or even have a destination, just wanting to get away for a little bit. He walks through different subdivisions, eventually settling on the one across from his own, the one that holds his old elementary school.

He knows it’s wrong, and no one should be at the school at this hour, but right now he doesn’t care, and he figures if he stays on the playground he won’t get caught. He walks to the back of the school, looking around at the jungle gym and various other playground equipments.

He makes a beeline for the swingset and sits down on one, but before he can start kicking his legs someone interrupts him.

“Who are you?”

It startles Mikey so bad he falls over, landing on his back with his legs caught on the seat of the swing.

“Where did you come from?” Mikey says from the ground.

“Up the hill, from those houses.” The other boy says, pointing at the set of homes behind them. “So, who are you?”

“Mikey. Who are you?”

“Pete.” He says, holding his hands out to help Mikey up.

Mikey takes his hands gratefully and Pete pulls him up, off the wood chips. “Thanks.” He says, dusting himself off.

“No problem.” Pete says, sitting down on one of the swings. “So, where did you come from, and why are you here at,” he pulls out his phone to check the time, “Twelve forty six in the morning?”

Mikey sits on the swing next to him, feeling better that Pete is just another teenager like him. “I snuck out of my house, I’m from the subdivision across from here, but I took the long way over.”

“Why’d you sneak out?”

“Cause my mom’s a bitch.” Mikey spits out, still angry. “I got a D in chemistry and she flipped a shit. It’s not like I failed the class or anything, I don’t have to retake it.”

“That sucks, man.” Pete says, sympathising with him.

“The worst part of this whole thing is that I actually tried this time. I really, really tried. It’s not like she believed me when I said I tried though, because no, it’s not trying unless you get an A. There’s no such thing as trying and failing, there’s only trying and succeeding.” Mikey rubs his eyes, trying to stop the forming tears.

“That’s the worst, when you actually try, but your parents don’t believe you.” Pete says softly, feeling bad for Mikey’s situation. 

Mikey sniffles, “yeah, it is. My mom just yelled at me and told me to go to my room.”

“That sucks, my parents don’t really get on my back about things like that.”

“Lucky.”

“Kind of… not really.” Pete mumbles, frowning.

Mikey looks up at him, “why?”

“They don’t really pay attention to me at all, and they fight a lot.”

“Oh, that sucks. My parent’s notice me, well, they notice my grades anyway, they didn’t really take notice to my personality and behavior until after my older brother, Gerard, left for college. They only care about me doing good in school and not breaking any rules. If they found out I snuck out in the middle of the night I would be dead, they wouldn’t be worried that I could have gotten hurt or anything like that, they’d only care that I broke their rule.”

“That’s not that kind of attention I want.” Pete sighs. “I just want them to notice me, not anything else. I try so hard for them, I do everything they ask, and things they don’t ask for too, but they never give me more than a smile and push me off to my room to get me out of their hair.”

Mikey sighs, “that sucks. Is that why you’re out here today?”

“Yeah kind of, they’ve been fighting a lot lately. They were downstairs yelling really bad and my music couldn’t drown it out like I usually do, so I just walked downstairs and left through the front door.”

“You just left?”

“Yeah, they didn’t even notice me. I walked right past them, right in front of their faces, they had to have seen me leave, but they didn’t because they were so caught up in themselves they couldn’t be bothered to notice their son just left through the front door.” Pete sniffles, rubbing his nose, “why do parents fucking suck?”

Mikey laughs bitterly, “real talk. They either pay too much attention to the wrong things, or not enough attention at anything. No matter what they do, they can’t get it right.”

Pete looks over at Mikey to fully see him. His hair is a mess, it looks half neat in the front, but all over the place in the back. His rectangular glasses cover his light brown eyes, which are red, wet with recent tears. Dark bags under his eyelids make it seem like he hasn’t slept in days. His nose is red, matching his puffy eyes, and his cheeks show streaks of dried tears.

Pete stands up from the swing, holding his hand out in front of Mikey. Mikey gives him a confused look, just looking at his hand, not taking it.

“Come on,” Pete says, “I want to take you somewhere.” 

Mikey hesitates, he just met this kid, but he figures he has nothing else to lose. He takes his hand and pulls himself up. Pete grins and drags him away from the playground completely, going up the hill.

“Where are we going?” Mikey asks.

“You’ll see, it’ll be fun.” Pete tells him.

He drags Mikey behind him through the subdivision they were in, crossing the main road to the one across from it. They eventually reach a set of houses where Pete slows his pace and begins to cut through backyards.

“We’re almost there.” He assures Mikey as he walks them into the woods. 

“Where?” Mikey asks, looking around at all the trees, leaves have already fallen, them being in mid january.

“A lake.”

“A lake?” 

“Yup.” Pete grins. “It’s really small, if anything this place should be called large ponds of Westville, but it’s called lakes.”

“Lakes of Westville? This is my sub.”

Pete turns a corner and walks up a large hill. “Then how have you never been here before? I mean, when I usually come here it’s pretty late but no one has ever been here when I have been here.”

Mikey shrugs, “don’t get out much I guess, or maybe it’s just a hidden place no one knows about.” He says as they reach the top of the hill.

Once they’re at the top Pete turns to show him in full view the hill they just walked up, and the lake he didn’t notice beside it. Mikey stands breathless at the view in front of him, he didn’t notice when walking up, but under the snow on the hill, wildflowers cover it. He can’t tell what kind or color, the flowers being dead because it’s mid January, he can only imagine what it looks like during the spring. To the left, darkened by the night, is a small lake, frozen over, much larger than any pond he’s ever seen. The moon reflects off of it in a way that makes the ice shine. Canadian geese are gathered at the bank, sleeping soundly. On the other side, two swans are doing the same, pressed close together.

“Come on,” Pete tugs on his hand, bringing him back to reality. “There’s a bench over there.”

He leads Mikey around the top of the hill, under a large, leafless, maple tree. Mikey lets go of Pete’s hand to walk to the edge of the hill, not wanting to walk back down, but wanting to get a better glimpse of the lake. 

“It’s beautiful.” He whispers.

“I know, right?” Pete smiles at Mikey’s reaction to seeing his sanctuary. “You should see it in the spring and summer, the colors are all muted now, but everything is so vibrant during those months, even at night. I come here when it’s late, it’s always so quiet and peaceful. Helps me relax, and stop thinking for a bit.”

“How have I never seen this before?”

“Most people haven’t, it’s pretty hidden. The only reason I found it is because I was wondering the woods for hours, came across this hill and found this little place.” 

Mikey turns around and sits down next to Pete. He shifts and hugs him tight. 

“Thank you.” He whispers.

Pete hugs back, “for what?”

“Taking me here. Making me feel better about my whole parent situation. It still sucks, but I’m not crying anymore, and it feels good having let all of that out, so thank you,for letting me talk.”

Pete smiles, “you’re welcome, anyway, you listened to me too. It goes both ways.”

Mikey pulls away from the hug and looks back at the lake, “the geese are so peaceful when they’re sleeping.”

“Yeah, the ducks look really cute when they’re sleeping too, but they’re all south for winter. Even the swans, spawns of satan themselves, look nice.” Pete points out.

Mikey looks around the lake, unable to find what swans Pete is talking about. He’s about to ask for help when Pete takes his hand and points to the side where the two swans are laying together. Mikey blushes, looking at Pete’s hand on top of his own. Pete doesn’t seem to notice.

“Over there, see now?” Pete asks.

Mikey looks past their hands and catches sight of the graceful birds, smiling softly. “Yeah, they’re beautiful.”

They sit in silence for a bit after that, both just taking in their surroundings. It’s calm around the lake, peaceful. It makes them feel safe, relaxed, even just for the time being.

After a few minutes Pete breaks the silence, “you know, if you’re having trouble with chem, I could get my friend Andy to tutor you. He’s a year older and like, really smart. He took earth science his freshman year instead of biology so he’s a junior taking chemistry with me, we’re in the same class and he helps me during everything.”

Mikey looks over at him, “really? Could you, please? I’ll be forever in your debt.”

“Yeah, of course. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind doing it, he already does it for me in class, helping you outside of school a few days a week while you get the hang of things won’t be too much trouble for him.”

“Thank you, so much.” Mikey smiles gratefully.

 

They stay around the lake for another hour, talking and walking around, exploring the place a bit more. Pete shows Mikey the best trees to climb, his favorite places to sit, and the spots right on the edge of the lake where it’s safe to touch the water, even if he’s technically not allowed to swim in it, but no one ever patrols this lake, so they could get away with just about anything.

It’s not until five in the morning when they decide to go back to their houses. Pete walks Mikey back to his house, Mikey showing shortcuts to it once he figures out what street they’re on.

“Hey, Pete?” Mikey asks, catching Pete’s attention as they near his house.

“Yeah, Mikes?”

“Can we, can we do this again? Like hang out?” He asks, a bit nervous.

“At one in the morning?” Pete laughs a bit, playfully teasing. “Actually yeah, the one am thing works for me, usually I can’t sleep.”

They stop at the side of Mikey’s house, where his window is. “It doesn’t have to be at one am, it can be during the daytime, or it can be in the middle of the night, both work for me.”

Pete hugs Mikey, “I’d love to hang out with you during the day time. I’ll find you at school on Monday, and introduce you to Andy and stuff.”

Mikey hugs back tight. “Thank you, so much, Pete.”

He pulls back and turns to start climbing the tree next to his window. Once he’s high enough he jumps through his window, landing as quiet as he can, not wanting to wake his parent’s up. 

He looks out and waves Pete goodbye, watching him walk away from his house before he turns around and decides to take a shower and get ready for school, forfeiting the idea of sleep all together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment and kudos please! It keeps me writing <3  
> So, like i said before I don’t know how long the story will be but I hope you guys liked the starting chapter!   
> You can contact me at [my tumblr sits-with-cats](http://sits-with-cats.tumblr.com/)


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mikey meets Andy and Pete’s other friends. Pete and Mikey agree to meet at the lake again that night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t know how long each chapter will be but I won’t start another fic until this one is done!  
> For reference here are their ages again   
> Gerard: Freshmen in college  
> Frank: Senior in high school  
> Andy: Junior in high school  
> Joe: Junior in high school  
> Mikey: Sophomore in high school  
> Pete: Sophomore in high school  
> Patrick: Sophomore in high school

Mikey was grounded the entire weekend, by the time Monday rolled around he was actually excited to go to school again, it meant he was going to see Pete.

He was preoccupied the beginning of school, finding his new classroom for the first day of this semester, so he didn’t have a chance to look for Pete before his class. He’s sitting in his first block, staring at the whiteboard for class to begin. He still had five minutes but he didn’t feel like finding anyone to talk to, by the time he would find someone, the warning bell would ring and he’d have to rush back to class.

Mikey’s off daydreaming when someone sits in the seat next to him. He instinctively looked over and blinks his surprise. A slightly muscular boy with ginger hair and a scruffy beard was sitting next to him, looking directly at him. Mikey had definitely never seen him before.

“Are you Mikey?” The boy asks.

Mikey nods, “uh, yeah. Who are you?”

“I’m Andy, Pete’s friend.” Mikey relaxes once he realizes who he is. “Pete told me to find you, said you need help with chemistry.”

Mikey smiles, “yeah, I need a tutor, how much do you charge for it?” He asks, willing to pay anything if it’ll get his grade up and his parent’s off his ass

Andy shakes his head, “I don’t charge. I’ll tutor you for free, helping someone else gets me to actually study. Class is about to start and I still have to get to mine, come find me at lunch and we can talk more about it. It won’t be hard to find me, I sit with Pete and two other boys, Patrick, who’s always wearing this trucker hat, no matter how many times he’s told by staff members to take it off, and Joe who has a mop of curly hair.” The warning bell rings, interrupting him. “I have to go, but we sit towards the back of the cafeteria, I’ll see you then.”

He stands up and quickly walks out, rushing to get to his next class. He leaves Mikey sitting there with a shocked and slightly confused expression, but he knew he had to go there during lunch, if only to see Pete again.

 

\---

Mikey walks into the lunchroom, dragging his friend Frank behind him. He looks around and almost immediately sees Andy and Pete sitting in the back with their two other friends that he talked about.

“So, you gonna go talk to them?” Frank asks.

MIkey turns his head to face him. “You’re coming with me.”

“No way, I don’t know these guys- hey!” Frank protests when Mikey grabs his arm, dragging him across the cafeteria to Pete’s table.

He walks right up to Pete and smiles, “Hey, Pete, Andy, this is Frank.” He introduces him.

The four boys look up at them, Pete’s face brightens considerably when he notices Mikey.

“Mikey Way!” Pete moves over and pats the seat next to him.

Andy grins back looking past Pete’s face, “hey Mikey, this is Joe and Patrick,” he gestures to the boys sitting across from him, “and you met this guy yesterday when he should have been sleeping.” He flicks Pete’s ear.

Pete whines and bats Andy’s hand away. Frank sits next to Patrick while Mikey takes the seat next to Pete. Pete scoots close to Mikey, sitting so their thighs are touching. Mikey and Frank pull out their lunches and introduce themselves to the other two boys.

Andy looks past Pete to talk to Mikey, “I talked to Mr. Cole this morning and he said we can use his classroom after school today and every Tuesday and Thursday.”

Mikey smiles, “that sounds great, I need all the help I can get. Is Mr. Cole nice? I don’t have him, I have Mrs. Vala.”

“You have Vala? No wonder you’re failing, she’s a horrible teacher!”Andy exclaims. “The new semester just started, we need to talk with your counselor and get you switched into a different class, it won’t be hard if you know how to sweet talk the counselors, or cry, crying always works. As for teachers, Cole and Clark are both great. Silac is pretty good too, not as good as the other two, he teaches A.P. chem so he goes really fast with regular, but he’s good at answering questions if you have a problem.”

Mikey blinks, still focused on Andy saying Vala is awful. “Wait. I’m not the only one who thinks she’s horrible?”

“Nope, she’s terrible. She’s the reason I switched to physics, I couldn’t switch from her class so I dropped it.” Joe speaks up, joining their conversation.

“Hey you take physics too?” Frank grins, glad to find a common ground with him.

“Yeah, physics buddies.” Joe jokes, reaching over Patrick to high-five him.

Patrick cups his mouth and calls, “neeerrrddds.”

“Fuck you, Patty.” Joe says, though he’s smiling. He snatches his hat and lifts it above his head.

“Don’t call me that!” Patrick gives a disgusted look at the unwelcome nickname and reaches over to try and get his hat back.

The others laugh at their banter, knowing it’s friendly. Joe stands on his seat and holds it above his head even higher, so Patrick definitely can’t get it back easily.

Pete turns back to Mikey, getting his attention in the process. “So, Mikey.”

“Yeah?” Mikey says.

“Andy’s helping you, now?”

“Andy is right here.” Andy flicks Pete’s ear again. “And he can tell you that yes, Mikey is getting help in chemistry and we are going to his counselor after lunch to switch him into our class.”

“Wait what,” Mikey says, this being news to him, “we are going when?”

“Right now.” Andy says, “we have to do it soon before our class fills up and you’ll have to rearrange your entire schedule to fit our class in.”

As the teachers start to dismiss tables, Pete grabs Mikey’s hand so he won’t get lost in the crowd of students going off to their next class. Pete follows Andy out of the cafeteria and to the counseling offices, paying no mind to their linked fingers.

Andy pushes the door open and lets Mikey and Pete walk in first. “Who’s your counselor?”

“Mrs. Smyte.” Mikey answers.

“Yeah, it is. We have the same one because both of our last names start with a ‘W’.” Pete says. “It says she’s open for lunch visits today, come on.”

They walk down the small hallway and quickly get to Mrs Smyte’s open office door. She’s quietly working at her desk, typing on her computer. Pete lets go of Mikey’s hand and knocks on the door, to alert her of their presence.

“Hello, Mrs. Smyte.” Pete says in a sickeningly sweet voice when she looks up.

“Peter! What can I do for you?”

“It’s not for me, it’s for my friend, Mikey Way, here.” Pete ignores the use of his full name and moves to show Mikey.

“Hello.” Mikey waves.

“Come on in boys, now what do you need sweetie?”

Andy steps forward to do the talking for Mikey. “Well, he had Mrs. Vala for a chem teacher last semester and did pretty terrible, and has her again this semester and since it’s just the first day of this new semester we were wondering if you could switch him into our class with Mr. Cole.”

“That’s tricky, we aren’t supposed to switch classes for students unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

“Please, I’m doing terrible in her class, my parents aren’t happy about it and neither am I.” Mikey begs her, not just wanting to be in a class with his friends, but also wanting to be able to actually understand the material.

She hums and sighs, “oh, alright, anything for a friend of Peter’s.” She pinches Pete’s cheek lightly and turns back to her computer. “What did you say your last name is?”

“Way, W-A-Y.”

“Oh, I remember your brother, Gerard, how is he doing?” She asks while fixing his schedule, it’s not too hard, his class is at the same time and day as Andy and Pete’s, so it’s a simple switch without having to move any of his other classes around. 

“He’s doing good, he’s got accepted to the School of Visual Arts and he likes it, he dorms there so it’s pretty lonely at home without him.”

“I bet Frank Iero misses him, whenever Gerard came in here Frank was always by his side.”

Mikey laughs a bit, “yeah, Frank misses him a ton and now that he’s not here anymore, Frank’s stuck with me.”

“Oh, I’m sure it’s not that bad.” She laughs with him, finalizing his schedule change. “Okay, I’ve switched your classes, tomorrow you’ll report to Mr. Cole’s classroom instead of Vala, now get to class, here are some passes.” She quickly writes three hall passes, not wanting them to be marked tardy when they were just helping a friend. “And Mikey, say hello to Gerard for me.”

“Will do!” Mikey waves goodbye, walking out of her office and back to the hallway.

“I have to get to class, I’ll see you guys after school.” Andy says, running down the hallway in the opposite direction.”

Mikey and Pete take their time, going to their lockers before class. “Mrs. Smyte seems really comfortable with you, why does she like you so much?” He asks Pete.

“She’s a family friend, we see each other at every family gathering, she likes me the most out of all my cousins.”

Mikey laughs a bit, “I bet that’s helpful.”

“It is, I pretty much get put in whatever classes I want, it’s great. So your brother and Frank, are they dating, even though Gerard is in college and Frank is still in high school?”

“Yeah, Frank is a senior so it’s not like a weird age gap or anything. They were dating for a few months before Gerard went off for college, and decided to break it off and stay friends because they didn’t know if they could make the distance work, even though Gerard’s school is only forty minutes away.”

“But they’re still dating now,” Pete says, a little confused.

“Yeah, that’s because during Gerard’s second week of college he was drawing with this girl and they started to kiss, because you know, he wasn’t dating anyone anymore, but while he was doing that Frank called him because they’d been talking every night and Gerard freaked the fuck out about it and felt terrible for kissing this girl and answered the phone call and started crying to Frank and apologizing for it and Frank told him to chill out and calm down because they broke up so it should be fine, but he was clearly really upset about it, he just didn’t want Gerard to worry about it. I was in the same room as Frank when he was talking to him, it was pretty obvious he was hurt by Gerard doing it so soon after they broke up, it was pretty heartbreaking to watch. Gerard came home the next weekend and they had a really long talk about it that I was not in the same room for but when I went down to Gerard’s bedroom to check on them they were all good and decided to try again with their relationship, that was in September, now we’re in January and they’re still going strong, and they’re a pretty cute couple if I’m being honest.”

“Woah, intense.” Pete says as they get up to his locker, opening it up. “You were there for that whole thing?”

“For the phone conversation yeah, but when Frank came downstairs for the big conversation I left, they needed to be alone. When I checked on them an hour later they were done talking and basically sitting on top of each other grinning like idiots. It was nice because the both of them were upset about the break up, but after that they were happy again.”

Pete pulls out the books he needs for his next class, shutting his locker once he has everything he needs. “So, Gerard’s bi?”

“Pan,” Mikey corrects as they leave Pete’s locker and walk to his own. “He’s pan and Frank is bi.”

“How about you?” Pete asks as they stop at Mikey’s locker.

“What about me?” Mikey opens his locker door, crouching down to get his books out.

“What’s your sexuality, if you don’t mind me asking.”

“Oh, I’m gay. You?” Mikey says, setting the books he needs on the floor next to him.

“Bisexual, like Frank.” Pete smiles, helping Mikey up once he has everything he needs. “So, do you want to go to the lake tonight?”

“Sure, it’ll be nice.”

“Awesome, meet me there at midnight. Now I actually have to get to class so I’ll see you then.” Pete runs off down the hall, turning the corner into the staircase.

Mikey smiles to himself and ignores how his cheeks get warm whenever Pete smiles. He turns the opposite direction and goes down the hall, making sure he has his pass ready to give to his teacher.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment and kudos please! It keeps me writing <3  
> You can contact me at [my tumblr sits-with-cats](http://sits-with-cats.tumblr.com/)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mikey gets tutored by Andy and has a heart to heart with Pete that night at the lake

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think the posting schedule will be every other day, it depends on how fast I can write/get things typed up. Enjoy!  
> For reference here are their ages again   
> Gerard: Freshmen in college  
> Frank: Senior in high school  
> Andy: Junior in high school  
> Joe: Junior in high school  
> Mikey: Sophomore in high school  
> Pete: Sophomore in high school  
> Patrick: Sophomore in high school

After school Mikey goes to his locker, getting the materials he needs for his and Andy’s study session. Andy walks up to him as he’s pulling out his chemistry book, knocking on the locker next to his to get Mikey’s attention.

“Hey, Andy.”

“Hey, I got your locker from Pete, he wants me to ask if you’re still up for midnight, whatever that means.”

“Yeah, you can tell him I’m still up for it.” Mikey says as he finishes packing his backpack with this night's homework as well as his chem stuff.

“You can tell him yourself, I’ll give you his phone number when we get to Cole’s room.” Andy waits for Mikey to zip up his backpack and stand before leading the way to Mr. Cole’s classroom.

Once they walk in Mr. Cole greets them from his desk. “Hello, boys. I’ll be in and out of this room for the next two hours or so, then I’ll have to lock up and you’ll have to go home.”

“We’ll only be here for the next hour, maybe hour and a half.” Andy informs him.

“Thank you for letting us use your room.” Mikey says, gratefully.

“No problem, just tell me if you need anything.”

“Alright.” Andy sets his stuff down on the lab table and sits on the stool. “Let’s science.”

Mikey laughs and takes a seat next to him, opening his book.

 

For the next hour Andy reteaches Mikey the basics of first semester chemistry, Mikey finally understanding what he was supposed to the semester before. 

“So that’s what nonpolar means?” Mikey nearly shouts when Andy teaches him the correct definition in a way that’s understandable to him.

“What did you think it meant, the definition is pretty straight forward.” Andy laughs at Mikey’s reaction.

“I didn’t know anything, but I know now, so thank you.” Mikey says sincerely.

“No problem man. That’s enough for one day,” Andy shuts his textbook, “we’ll meet the same time on Thursday, and don’t forget to text Pete.”

“I won’t, thanks again, Andy. This really means a lot to me, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Andy finished packing his backpack before waving goodbye, walking out the classroom door. Mikey zips up his own backpack and stands up, turning to Mr. Cole at his desk.

“Bye Mr. Cole, thank you again for letting us use your classroom.”

“It was no problem, Mikey, I’ll see you later.”

Mikey smiles and walks out of the classroom to the hallway. As he walks out of the school he pulls out his phone to check it for the first time all day. He has two missed calls from his mom and several texts from both his parents asking where he is.

Mikey takes a deep breath before calling his mother, bracing himself for her yelling. It rings twice before she answers.

“Michael Way, where the hell are you?” His mother shouts through the phone.

Mikey holds it away from his ear, sighing. “I’m walking home, now.”

“School ended hours ago! You should be home right now, you’re grounded, you’re not allowed to go anywhere!” She yells.

“I didn’t go anywhere, I stayed after school and I’m having my friend Andy is tutor me in chemistry because I did so bad last semester, and I also switched my schedule so I have a better teacher and a class with some friends, so they can help me if I don’t understand something.”

“Oh.” She pauses, she wasn’t expecting Mikey to give such a well formed answer. “Well, you’re still grounded for yesterday, but it’s good you’re taking charge and fixing yourself.”

Mikey clenches his jaw and bites back a snappy response about how he was never broken in the first place. “Yes mom. I’m walking into the house now.”

“Well, I’m not home yet. You’re father and I discussed your punishment, and you’re grounded for the next three weeks, no laptop and no friends unless for studying, except for Frank, you may keep your phone, and no gaming either, only tutoring after school then straight home.”

“Okay.”

“Good. I’ll see you later, do the dishes before I come home.” She hangs up without another word.

Mikey stares at his phone, frowning. “Love you too, mother.” He says sarcastically.

He unlocks the front door and walks inside, hanging up his jacket and kicking off his shoes into the closet. He yawns and rubs his eyes, having not gotten any sleep the night before other than the quick nap he had before he snuck out, he’s basically running on fumes at this point.

He walks into the kitchen and groans out loud when he catches sight of the sink full of dirty dishes. Not wanting to upset his parents any further and get yet another lecture, he rolls his sleeves up and starts running the hot water to wash them.

Once done with the chore he goes upstairs to finish any homework that’s not chemistry, just because he’s having trouble in one class doesn’t mean he needs to get anymore behind in the others.

By the time he’s finished with the last page of his english assignment he hears his dad open the front door. He sighs, hoping his father isn’t as angry with him as his mother is.

“Mikey, could you come downstairs?” His father calls.

Mikey stands up and stretches his back before walking out of his room and down the staircase. “Yeah dad?”

“Sit down, son. I want to talk to you.” He pats the seat next to him on the couch.

Mikey sits down, leaving a large space between the two of them. “What’s up?”

“Nothing much, I just wanted to talk to you, father to son.”

“About…?”

“Well, mainly your attitude lately, especially towards your mother.”

Mikey resists the urge to roll his eyes and takes an apology to his father. “I’m sorry Dad, it’s just school is really stressful lately and my chemistry teacher is horrible so I got my friend Andy to help me, he’s tutoring me and I got into a different class with a better teacher. With Gerard gone it’s just a lot harder for me to cope with things.”

His father sighs, “It’s alright son, just try and tone it down, you know how your mother is.”

“I will, sorry.” He apologizes again, happy his father accepted it so they can move on.

“Well, now that that’s out of the way, meet any cute girls lately?” His dad asks, wiggling his eyebrows.

Mikey rolls his eyes, but ducks his head to avoid blushing. “dad you’re so weird. But, I uh did meet someone, not a girl, this one boy, I don’t really know yet, I did just meet him yesterday.”

“Oh, a boy.” His dad sounds disappointed but Mikey ignores it.

“Yeah, he’s really cute, has weird bleached hair, but it suits his personality, which is a bit out there, but cute nonetheless.”

“Good, well if you like you him that’s good, I guess, as long as he makes you happy, and he’s a good person. You look tired, are you getting enough sleep?”

“Yeah, I just had a long day, I’m gonna turn in early. Night dad.” Mikey stands up and goes to the staircase.

“Night kiddo, I love you.”

Mikey mirrors the sentiment and goes upstairs to his bedroom. He sits on his bed and takes out his phone to check the time.

6:37

It’s not too late, his mom should be home by seven thirty, but Mikey really is tired, he figures he should take a nap before going out with Pete, so he’s not as tired tomorrow as he is today. He pulls up Pete’s contact and starts typing out a message.

 

Mikey- ‘Hey its mikey’

Pete- ‘MIKEYWAY’

Mikey- ‘We still on for tonight?’

Pete- ‘Yup!!!! C u @ midnight’

 

Mikey sets an alarm for 11:45 and lays down on his bed, if he sleeps now he avoids having to see his mother, and he’ll be well rested for his little trip with Pete. He shuts his eyes and is quickly engulfed in a deep sleep.

 

What felt like a few minutes but is actually hours later his alarm goes off, waking him up from his deep sleep. He shuts it off quickly so it doesn’t disturb his parents, alerting him about being awake.

He sits up and rubs his eyes, stretching his arms and legs before stepping out of his bed. He moves around his room carefully, avoiding making any noise by tripping over his clothes or the creaky floorboards. 

He opens his window quietly and climbs out, using the same method as he did the first time, carefully climbing down the side of his house and landing on the grass, noiselessly.

He brushes off his pants and turns around, starting his way to the lake. Once he’s at the top of the hill he sees Pete sitting at the bottom, running his hands through the grass and flowers. Mikey walks down quietly, careful not to disturb him, sitting down next to him, going entirely unnoticed.

“Hey.” Mikey says.

Pete startles, flinching violently. “Shit man, you scared the crap out of me.”

“Sorry,” Mikey smiles, “What’s up?”

“Nothing, just picking flowers and such. How was tutoring today?”

“Great, Andy is an amazing teacher, an amazing person in general actually.”

“Isn’t he?” Pete smiles, “They all are, my friends are, I mean. You and Frank should sit with us at lunch more often.”

“Yeah, sure, Andy said the same thing actually. We will if Joe and Patrick don’t mind it.”

“They won’t, they’ll be too invested with each other anyway.” Pete says bitterly, going back to picking the flowers.

Mikey tilts his head, confused, “what do you mean?”

“Nothing it’s just.” Pete pauses, taking a breath, trying to figure out how to word this in the right way. “Patrick’s my best friend, okay, and recently he developed a small crush on Joe, and before you ask, no, I’m not jealous in that way. I love him to death, I really do, but as just a friend, he’s like a brother, and I really think that him and Joe would make a cute couple, it’s just he’s been paying a lot of attention to Joe lately, making gross, lovestruck faces at him, only talking about topics that relate to him, I just miss Patrick is all.”

Mikey moves closer to Pete and picks at the flowers with him as he listens to his story. “Sounds to me like you’re friend jealous, like you just want him back as your best friend, the way it used to be. I got it when my brother and Frank started dating, I love them both but they were super annoying in the beginning, they’re fine now, I have them both back, just like how you’ll get Patrick back.”

“When though?” Pete asks, resting his head on Mikey’s shoulder.

“When he gets over this crush, or when him and Joe get together.” Mikey tries to assure him.

“It’s taking too long.” He sighs.

“We should be good friends to him then, let’s find out if Joe likes him back.”

“As far as I know, Joe is straight.”

“So was my brother, now he has bright red hair and is a flaming homosexual art student with a super gay boyfriend.”

Pete laughs, turning his head on Mikey’s shoulder to look up at him, “Flaming homosexual?”

“It’s literally how he describes himself, he’s so gay. Let’s do it, see if Joe likes Patrick back, it’ll be fun, like a mission for us.”

“Yeah, okay. He’s my best friend, I want him to be happy.”

“As you should, now what else happened today?” Mikey asks, trying to change the topic into a happier subject.

They talk with each other for hours, staying in their little spot on the bottom of the hill. It’s around four in the morning when Mikey decides it’s time to go home when Pete nearly falls asleep while he’s telling a story.

“Wow man, is my story really that boring.” He jokes.

Pete rubs his eyes, “No, sorry. I’m just really tired.”

“Come on, get up. I’ll walk you home.” Mikey stands and helps Pete up to his feet.

Mikey keeps his hand in Pete’s and walks him through the neighborhoods until they eventually arrive at Pete’s house. Pete hugs him tight before pulling away and straightening his back.

“Thanks for listening to me tonight, let’s hang out in the day time tomorrow, like after school.”

Mikey sighs, “I’d love to, but I can’t for the next three weeks. I’m grounded, I still have my phone though, so I can call and text.”

“Okay, then I’ll call you tomorrow.” He unlocks his front door and waves goodbye to Mikey, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Later Pete, try and get some sleep before school.” Mikey says, waiting for Pete to shut the door before walking back to his own house.

Mikey climbs back up the side of his house and gets through the window, stepping down quietly, changing into more comfortable clothes so he can get into bed. Once he’s laid down and gotten comfortable he takes out his phone to put it on the charger, smiling when he notices a text from Pete.

 

Pete- ‘Thanks for tonight mikeyway <3’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise I love JoeTrick lol  
> Comment and kudos please! It keeps me writing <3  
> You can contact me at [my tumblr sits-with-cats](http://sits-with-cats.tumblr.com/)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Operation JoeTrick is in play, Andy makes his own confession to Frank

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is really JoeTrick centric sorry but it’s needed before I can get to the next chapter which will be very petekey  
> For reference here are their ages again   
> Gerard: Freshmen in college  
> Frank: Senior in high school  
> Andy: Junior in high school  
> Joe: Junior in high school  
> Mikey: Sophomore in high school  
> Pete: Sophomore in high school  
> Patrick: Sophomore in high school

Over the next few weeks Mikey and Frank continued to sit with Pete, Andy, Joe, and Patrick at lunch, becoming better friends with all four of them.

The tutoring sessions between Andy and Mikey have been going well, with chemistry coming easy to Andy, he caught on to the lessons easily and helped Mikey considerably. The first tests of the semester are coming up soon, so they’ve been switching from chemistry to studying their other subjects, Joe, Patrick, Pete, and Frank joining them often.

 

Joe and Patrick were at Mikey’s house, studying with him for their upcoming algebra final. The three weeks Mikey was grounded came and went, so he’s allowed to hang out with his friends again.

“Mikey, pay attention to me.” Joe flicks a paper ball at Mikey’s face, hitting his nose.

Mikey blinks back to reality when the paper ball hits his face. “Sorry, got distracted. Where did Patrick go?”

“Bathroom.” Joe says, sitting up and crossing his legs.

“Oh.” Mikey says, he pauses for a moment, seeing a perfect opportunity to put in the plan Pete and him came up with. “Say, Patrick is pretty cute.”

Joe ducks his head, looking at his lap, but Mikey doesn’t miss the light pink color dusting his cheeks. “What? Uh, I don’t- I mean, umm.”

Mikey smiles knowingly, raising an eyebrow at his friend, “getting pretty flustered there Joe, what’s up, don’t you think he’s cute too?”

“I do, I mean, no, I- he’s. I’m straight.” He finishes, stumbling over his words.

Mikey snorts, “yeah, and Pete’s a natural blond. Come on, he’s cute, and nice, and it sounds to me that you like him.”

“I, uh… okay, I like him a little, he is sweet, and cute…”

“Okay, you like him, and everyone knows he likes you. Go for it.”

“What if- wait, did you say he likes me?”

“Yes, dude, it’s so obvious, he practically has hearts in his eyes every time he looks at you. Go for it, the sooner the better.”

“How soon should I do it?”

“Like today soon, trust me, he really likes you.”

Joe shifts, “okay, yeah, okay. I’ll tell him later today, if I can muster up enough confidence.” 

At that moment Patrick walks back into the room, only hearing the last part of what Joe said. “Enough confidence for what?” He asks, sitting down next to him.

“Asking someone out.” Joe tells him the truth, it’s vague enough so Patrick won’t find out it’s him he’s trying to ask out.

His face falls, immediately thinking the worst. “Oh. Okay, well my mom called, she wants me to come home and help her out with some things, so I’ll get going.” He starts packing his books away into his backpack.

“I’ll walk you home.” Joe says, packing up his own things and helping Mikey clean up around his room.

“No, it’s alright, you don’t have to.”

“I want to.” Joe says earnestly.

Patrick blushes lightly, ducking his head as he zips up his backpack. “Okay, thanks. See you later, Mikey.” He says as he stands up, pulling his backpack over his shoulders.

Joe stands up next to him, doing the same with his own backpack. “Bye, Mikes.”

“Have fun, be safe.” Mikey winks at Joe as they walk out of his house.

Once they’re gone Mikey picks up his phone and texts into the group chat consisting of Pete, Andy, Frank, and himself.

 

Mikey- ‘Operation JoeTrick in play. Theyre on their way to patricks house now’

Pete- ‘Frank they pass by ur house on their way’

Frank- ‘Nice okay. Andy is with me rn’

Andy- ‘Ye’

Pete- ‘Dont do anything yes w8 till it looks hopeless’

Frank- ‘Ok’   
  


“So, any particular reason you wanted to walk me home?” Patrick asks Joe as they’re walking through the neighborhoods, nearing his home.

“Uh, yeah actually.” Joe pauses, taking a deep breath, trying to hype himself up, “I have something I want to ask you.”

Patrick holds his breath, trying not to get too hopeful that this is what he really hopes it is. “Yeah, what is it?” 

“Well, um, there’s this person in my life, and I kinda have a crush on him-them, fuck. Okay, you know this person is a boy now.”

Patrick laughs at his slip up, finding it adorable. “Sorry.” He says between light giggles.

“Don’t laugh at my struggle.” Joe says, smiling at him. “Whatever, so I have a crush on this boy, and he’s really cute, and sweet, and he’s one of my best friends. He’s shorter than me, wears a stupid hat every day and has the voice of an angel when he sings.”

“Mhmm, sounds like a loser.”

Joe stops walking and turns Patrick around to face him, in the middle of the sidewalk. “I guess he is, but I really want him to be my loser.” He tilts Patrick’s face up, stepping a bit closer to him. “Do you think he wants it too?”

“Yeah, I think he wants it.” Patrick says before standing on his toes and closing the gap between their lips.

Joe smiles and kisses back lightly, “So you got message then?” He asks when he pulls away a bit.

“That you think I’m a loser?” Patrick laughs, wrapping his arms around Joe’s neck.

“That’s not what I meant.”

Patrick laughs again, brushing his nose with Joe’s. “I know, but the boy is me, right?”

“Yeah, he is.”

“Good.”

Patrick pulls Joe into a hug, leaving his arms around Joe’s neck. Joe responds quickly, wrapping his arms around Patrick’s waist, keeping him close.

“Hey, this is cute and shit, but can you do it in front of your own house?”.

Patrick pulls his head out of Joe’s neck and looks up to see Frank and Andy’s heads out of the window in the house next to them, Frank’s house.

“Yeah, we’re trying to study.” Andy calls.

Patrick flushes and presses his head back into Joe’s neck. “Oh my god.” He mumbles against it.

“Sorry, we’ll go now.” He moves his arms from Patrick’s waist and takes his hand instead, he moves to continue walking down the sidewalk but Frank stops him.

“Wait! I have something for you.”

Frank pulls his head back inside his bedroom and ducks down, shuffling around for a bit. Andy, Patrick, and Joe all exchange confused looks, wondering what he could possibly be getting.

“I found them, catch!” Frank calls, throwing a box out his window.

The box lands, fully in tact, on his front lawn. Joe walks away from Patrick to pick it up. Once he has it he looks it over before flushing a dark red, Frank threw him a box of condoms.

“Frank what the hell!”

“You’re right, what was I thinking?” He throws out a small bottle, it landing next to Joe.

Joe picks it up and grimaces when he notices it’s a bottle of lube. Andy watches his facial expressions change and bursts out with laughter, falling to the floor of Frank’s room.

“Frank we just got together, we don’t need these. Why do you even have these?” Joe says, a deep blush still on his face.

“I have a boyfriend in college, what do you think we do? Cuddle and watch movies? Well, we do that too, but usually in the afterglow.” Frank replies.

“Frank we’re outside, anyone can hear you!” Patrick shouts.

He rushes over to Joe and pulls him to his feet, the condoms and lube now shoved into Joe’s hoodie pocket. He takes his hand and starts walking away with Joe back to his own house.

“Goodbye, I didn’t need to know what Frank and Gerard got to in their free time, but I do now and I don’t like it.”

“Wait, one last thing!” Frank shouts before they’re too far down the sidewalk.

“What now, haven’t you done enough?” Joe nearly whines, he’s grateful no one else is outside, listening in on this embarrassing conversation.

“It’s about your face Joe, and for Patrick’s well being. Shave your beard, trust me, beard burn is a bitch between the thighs, trust me.”

The two flustered boys turn back around and rush to Patrick’s house, neither talking about the conversation, but Joe keeps the condoms and lube Frank gave him, just in case.

Frank walks back into his bedroom and shuts his window, he sits down on the floor, next to Andy who’s still laughing about the whole situation. He pulls out his phone and texts into the group chat.

 

Frank- ‘operation JoeTrick complete. Good job team.’

 

Once Andy regains his composer he sits up straight and looks at Frank, who’s now putting his phone down.

“Is that really why you have condoms and lube?”

“Yeah, why else would I have them? Safe sex is important, especially when it’s your friends doing it.”

“No, I mean, you’ve had… you know.” Andy says suggestively, trying not to say anything specific.

“Oh my god, just say the word Hurley. Sex, fuck, bang, screw, intercorse, frick frack.” Frank stands on top of his bed, shouting, “I, Frank Iero, Have done the sex with Gerard Arthur Way!”

Andy watches horrified as Frank lists off synonyms for sex, and even more so when he stands on his bed, proclaiming he’s done it before.

“Okay, okay, I get it, get down. I just can’t believe you’ve done it before, like you actually did it.”

“The sex, Andy, I’ve done the sex.” Frank says, getting off his bed and sitting down next to Andy on the floor.

“Yeah, that.”

“Come on, Andy, say it with me now. The sex.”

Andy sighs, “fine. The sex. Are you happy?”

“Very, now why do you look so confused and freaked out on the fact that I’ve done it before? You’re seventeen, me and Gerard are both eighteen. You’re still a virgin right? Trust me, it’s not as scary as you think.”

“Yeah, I’m a virgin, and it’s not that it’s scary-”

Frank cuts him off, “then we need to get you laid, asap. Guy or girl? I can get you hook ups with either, or both at once, but I don’t think that’s good for your first time. I know a lot of people.”

“What if, what if I don’t what either of it?” Andy asks quietly, Frank is pretty sex centric, he doesn’t know how he’ll react to this.

“What do you mean you don’t want any of it?” Frank asks, genuinely confused.

“I mean I don’t want sex, like at all, ever.”

Frank pauses, processing what Andy says before sitting back, “Oh, I get it now. Sorry man, I didn’t realize you were ace. That’s cool nothing wrong with it, at all.”

Andy smiles, relaxing significantly, “Thanks man, this means a lot.”

“No problem, man.” Frank smiles at him, “now come on, we still have to finish this assignment.” Frank pulls his book onto his lap, finding where they left off on the assignment.

“Yeah, did Pete or Mikey text back about Joe and Patrick?”

Frank picks up his phone and nods, “yeah, Mikey said nice and Pete sent a thumbs up emoji.”

Andy nods and changes the subject back to their school assignment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys like JoeTrick because i sure do lol  
> Comment and kudos please! It keeps me writing <3  
> You can contact me at [my tumblr sits-with-cats](http://sits-with-cats.tumblr.com/)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pete and Patrick fight only for Pete to go home and have a fight with his own parents, this leads to Pete finding comfort in Mikey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Enjoy :)  
> For reference here are their ages again   
> Gerard: Freshmen in college  
> Frank: Senior in high school  
> Andy: Junior in high school  
> Joe: Junior in high school  
> Mikey: Sophomore in high school  
> Pete: Sophomore in high school  
> Patrick: Sophomore in high school

They’re a few weeks into the new semester, Mikey doing much better now that his chemistry class has Andy and Pete in it. The studying Mikey did with all of his friends for the first tests of the new semester helped him significantly, passing all of the tests with flying colors.

Mikey passed the first test in chemistry with a B+, he was extremely proud of himself, as was his father. His mother commented that he could have gotten an A, but Mikey ignored it, she wasn’t going to be proud of him no matter what he did.

The classes this semester has Mikey with a friend in each one, usually when it comes to Andy or Frank it’s an elective, because they’re older than him.

Patrick and Joe have been increasingly, adorably, gross with each other, growing closer and being more lovey-dovey than ever. This, of course, bothered Pete, making him distance himself from his best friend, and grow closer to Mikey.

The midnight visits to the lake continue, usually the two hang out during the daytime, but if Pete is having another sleepless night, or one of them had a particular bad day and didn’t want to talk in the daylight, they’ll meet at the lake, and talk with each other, or sit in a comfortable silence, feeling much better just being around the other. As time passes the weather starting to warm up made the lake visits much more enjoyable as well, they weren’t as cold as when they first started, especially as they’re getting into spring now that it’s the end March, early April.

 

Pete leans over and waves his hand in front of his best friends face and his phone, “hey Patrick, earth to Patrick.” He’s been texting the whole time they’ve been together at Patrick’s house.

Patrick looks up, “Hmm?”

Pete sighs, sitting back, “nothing.”

“Okay.” Patrick says, looking back at his phone.

“Seriously?” Pete nearly yells, giving Patrick an annoyed look.

Patrick looks up again. “What?”

“You’ve been on your phone the whole time we’ve been together! It’s like you don’t want to hang out with me at all.”

“Okay, like you’re not always ignoring me when we’re together.” Patrick says, glaring right back at Pete.

“I do not.” Pete argues with him.

“Oh come on, every time we have a class together and with Mikey you always ignore me in favor of him!”

“Oh, you mean exactly what you do whenever Joe is in sight, or even when he’s not anywhere near us you’re texting him constantly, or only talking about him.”

“That’s different, we’re dating.”

“How about when you weren’t dating, you’re welcome by the way, I was the one that told Mikey that you liked Joe, and he was the one to tell Joe to take his head of of his ass long enough to ask you out. Before you two started dating you always ignored me, especially at lunch or when we had classes with Joe, making those gross eyes at him and dropping our plans when Joe wanted to hang out because apparently I’m not that important to you. So yeah, maybe I do talk to Mikey in class a lot, but that’s because he actually talks to me instead of giving shitty one word responses with you his face glued to his phone talking to someone else.” Pete explodes on Patrick, saying everything he kept bottled up.

Patrick sits there with a dumbfounded look on his face, processing what Pete just dumped on him. “Pete, wait-”

“Save it ‘Trick.” Pete walks out of Patrick’s front door and makes his way down to his own house.

As he walks down the street he can hear his parents yelling before he even steps on the front porch. He takes a deep breath, knowing he’s going to be greeted by a shitshow. Once he walks inside he walks past the living room, going to make his way to his own room but his father calls him into the living room.

“Peter, come here, me and your mother want to talk to you.”

Pete turns around with a confused expression, his parents usually just ignore him, not even notice when he comes home. He walks over to the couch and takes a seat, while his parents stay standing over him.

“Yeah, dad?”

“We want to tell you something.” His mother takes Pete’s hand, cradling them. Pete looks down at their hands, confused and uncomfortable with the gesture. “Me and your father, we have been talking and we think it’s best if we get a divorce.”

Pete jerks back, ripping his hands away from his mother’s hold. “You’re what?”

“Oh, honey, you must have seen this coming, noticing we haven’t been getting along lately.” She tries to console him.

“Yeah, I did see this coming, I saw it coming three years ago when it should have happened instead of continuing to fight around me, the whole neighborhood can hear you guys screaming when you do. It’s funny how you ask me if I’ve noticed what you guys do when you don’t notice anything I do, have you been paying attention to me the last couple years? Have you noticed that I’ve been sneaking out every other night, scratch that, it’s not sneaking out it’s literally walking out of the front door while you two stand in the living room and argue with each other. No, it’s not a shock that I’ve noticed this, I notice all the shitty things you do, like how you never bother to shut the doors when you yell so I can hear everything you’re saying, especially when it’s about me, I notice the homophobic comments that you don’t even realize are wrong to say and how they hurt like hell because news flash your son likes boys! Not that you would notice that, because as obvious as I try to make it you two don’t notice anything! Or how about my absolute favorite, I’ve been working my ass off in all my classes since middle school to bring home report cards with straight A’s and I don’t get so much as a ‘good job Pete’ or a pat on the back or god forbid you say you’re proud of me. I made varsity on the school’s soccer team as a sophomore and neither of you have gone to a single one of my games. How about I hate being called Peter, and yet you still fucking call me that, my name is Pete. I may be related to you but you don’t act like my parents.” Pete turns on his heels and walks out of the door without another word, leaving the two speechless adults behind him.

He slams the door behind him, walking away from his house and down the street, he really just wants to get as far away from that house as possible. He finds himself walking to Mikey’s house. By now he knows which window is Mikey’s bedroom, he finds a few pebbles on the ground and throws them at the glass, each one making a light noise to get Mikey’s attention.

Mikey opens the window and smiles when he sees Pete standing below him. “Hey, what’s up? I thought we were meeting later.”

“Can we go now? Please, I can’t go back home and it’s nine thirty, I know your parents don’t let you have friends over past ten.” Pete tries to keep the sadness from his voice, but Mikey’s expressions shows him he failed.

“Sure, hold on, let me grab a few things.” He ducks back inside.

Pete can hear him shuffling around a bit, moving things around his room for a few minutes before he climbs out of his bedroom window, his carrying his backpack. Once he’s on the ground he pulls Pete into a tight hug.

“You okay?” Mikey asks quietly.

Pete shakes his head, “not really, I’ll tell you everything when we get there. What’s in the bag?” He asks, pulling away from the hug.

Mikey takes Pete’s hand in his own and they start walking away from his house together, making the short trip to the lake. “Some clothes you left at my house a few days ago, my phone and some school stuff. If you’re not going back home you’re going to need this stuff.”

“Thank you.” Pete squeezes Mikey’s hand.

Pete sniffles as they arrive at the hill, making their way to the bottom. It’s still cold out, it being mid february by now, the two are bundled in sweatshirts and thick jeans, Mikey packed in his bag a blanket for the two of them to share.

Mikey sits on the ground, pulling Pete down with him, “so, what happened?” He asks as he takes out the small blanket from his backpack, wrapping it around the two of them.

Pete takes a deep breath, “it’s kind of a lot, but to start me and Patrick got into a huge fight, like a really bad one, and I stormed off and went home after we argued and when I got home my parents, oh god my parents.” Pete buries his face into his hands.

Mikey moves closer to Pete and wraps his arm around him, “Hey, it’s alright, you can tell me what happened.” He says softly, letting Pete take a moment to collect himself.

“They called me into the living room when I got home, and I sat down with them and they told me they’re getting a divorce.” Pete says, his voice cracking on the last word. He twists so he can rest his head on Mikey’s chest as the other boy consoled him.

“Oh, Pete. I’m so sorry.” Mikey sympathises, rubbing Pete’s back.

“It’s fine, really. I saw it coming a mile away, that’s not what I’m upset about. They said I should have noticed how they’ve been fighting recently, and I blew up on them, like really badly. I told them some things, like how I sneak out and I wish they cared about me, and some other things, and after I yelled all of that I said they’re not really my parents, and that was probably too much but I’m just so  _ mad  _ so I just left, without saying anything else.” Pete buries his head deeper into Mikey’s chest, gripping his shirt tight, as if he lets go, Mikey will disappear. 

Mikey holds him for a while, letting Pete cry out into his chest, knowing Pete needs to let this out, or it’ll only bottle up and get worse. He whispers soothing things into his hair, rubbing his back gently.

Eventually the sobs slow down and Pete loosens his grip on Mikey’s shirt. He doesn’t pull away, only shifts to get more comfortable with the position they’re in.

“Thank you.” Pete whispers.”

Mikey rests his head on Pete’s. “It’s no problem. Do you want to tell me what the fight between you and Patrick was about?”

Pete pulls away at that, knowing he should tell Mikey face to face, not face to chest. He looks up, his puffy red eyes locking with Mikey’s gentle brown ones.

“Well, we were hanging out at his house, but he was ignoring me the whole time, and texting Joe, and I got really mad about it, so I told him off for it, and we started arguing about it and he said that I ignored him whenever you’re around, so I snapped back that it was me and you that helped get him and Joe together in the first place, and that I only ignore him and talk to you when he’s ignoring me first, and then I walked out.” Pete says sadly, he feels a bit bad for snapping so harshly at his best friend, but at the same time, he stands by everything he said.

Mikey lifts his hand up and wipes a few of Pete’s tears away, frowning. He hates seeing Pete this sad. “I’m sure Patrick feels horrible right now, he’s probably trying to contact you right now to apologize.”

“I wouldn’t know, I left my phone at home.”

Mikey opens his mouth to say something in reply when his phone rings, interrupting him. He checks who’s calling him and groans out loud, it’s his mother. He shoots Pete and apologetic look before answering it.

“Hello?”

“Michael James Way where the hell are you?” His mother shouts into the phone.

“I told dad this, I’m at a friends house, he had a really bad day and needs me right now.”

“I don’t care what you told your father, it’s ten thirty, you come home this instant!” She yells at him.

“No, I need to stay here. I already told dad I’m probably going to sleep over.”

“Michael, come home now, you ungrateful-”

“I’m staying.” Mikey hangs up, not willing to hear more insults about him. His father knows where he is, he’ll probably be able to talk to his mother and get her to calm down about this.

“Sorry about that, guess I’m staying here with you tonight.”

“Good.” Pete wraps his arms around Mikey’s waist and hugs him, resting his head back on his chest like before. “Thank you.” he says quietly.

Mikey hugs him back as a wordless reply, letting him relax in his arms. Pete falls asleep in Mikey’s embrace, snuggling up to his chest. Mikey watches him for a few minutes, finding him adorable.

After a bit he untangles his arms, keeping Pete resting on his chest, and pulls out his phone again. He checks the messages on his phone, his father had texted him that he managed to calm his mother down, but she’s still very upset.

He looks at his other texts, the group chat between the six high schoolers seems relatively silent for once, usually it’s constantly beeping with messages between a few of them.

He does however, have several texts from Patrick and a few from Joe.

 

Patrick- ‘im sorry’ (sent 9:43)

Patrick- ‘tell pete im sorry pls hes not answering me’ (sent 9:49)

Patrick- ‘pls i feel horrible tell him im sorry hes my best friend i love him please’ (sent 10:23)

 

Mikey sighs and clicks to the messages from Joe.

 

Joe- ‘Patrick is crying about this please tell pete hes sorry’ (sent 10:12)

Joe- ‘He loves you too mikey’ (sent 10:22)

 

Mikey checks the time, noticing it’s only 10:45, the two boys are probably still awake. Pete stirs in his sleep, blinking his eyes open to see Mikey looking at his phone.

He sits up and rubs his eyes, “What are you doin’?”

Mikey hands Pete his phone so he can look at the messages himself. 

“Oh...” He says quietly

“See, I told you. He loves you a lot.” Pete starts to type out a message back to Patrick. “What are you saying?”

“That I’m sorry too, for yelling at him and stuff, and that I love him and he’s my best friend and stuff. We both have things to apologize for.”

Mikey smiles. “Good.” He says, leaning forward and pressing a soft kiss to his forehead.

Pete looks up from the phone, blushing. “What was that for?”

Mikey blushes heavily, “uh, well. I just thought, the moment was-”

“Do it again please.” Pete cuts him off.

Mikey nods and leans down to press another kiss to the top of Pete’s head, but at the last moment, Pete tilts his head up and catches Mikey’s lips with his own.

Mikey squeaks and pulls back, he wasn’t expecting that, but he knows what it means. “So, you um…”

“Yeah, I do.” Pete smiles wide.

“Good.” Mikey leans in for another kiss only to be interrupted by his phone ringing in Pete’s hand.

“Damn it.” Pete grumbles and looks at the caller ID. “it’s Patrick, I’m going to answer.”

Mikey nods his head and listens carefully to the conversation when Pete answers the phone, not wanting to miss anything from the conversation.

“Hey, Patrick.” Pete answers.

“Pete! Oh thank god you answers, I’m so sorry-”

“It’s fine, I’m sorry too, you don’t have to apologize.”

“But I do, because it’s not fine. These past few months, especially these past few weeks, I was being a major dick ignoring you. You’re my best friend, and I’m sorry for the stupid things I’ve been doing and everything I said today. I love you.”

“I love you right back, and Mikey says he loves you too.”

Mikey smiles, “hey Patrick.” He says, letting him know he’s right there.

“Hey, Mikey. Are you guys at the lake right now?”

“Yeah, neither of us really want to go home.” Pete answers. “That being said, I need to tell all of you guys something tomorrow, it’s kind of important so before school can we all meet in Mr. Cole’s room or something?” Pete looks at Mikey, the other boy already knows it’s about Pete needing to tell his friends about his parents divorce.

“Yeah, sure. I’ll send a text into the group chat.” Patrick says, “you okay Pete?” He asks, wanting to make sure it’s nothing too terrible.

“Better than before I guess.” He sighs.

“Okay, good. I have to get to sleep now, but just remember I love you guys, both of you. But Pete more.” He says a little teasingly.

Mikey smiles, finding it funny. “Yeah, yeah, we love you too, but Pete loves you more.”

“Damn right I do.” Pete grins.

“Hey, Mikey?” Patrick asks, wanting to say one more thing before he has to get to bed.

“Yeah?”

“Take care of Pete tonight.” He says, hanging up the phone right after.

Mikey takes the phone from Pete and puts it in his backpack, before laying down. Pete curls up next to him, snuggling close with his head on Mikey’s chest. Mikey shifts the blanket so they’re more comfortable and wraps his arm around Pete’s side.

“Good night, Mikeyway.” Pete says, already halfway asleep.

“Good night Pete.” Mikey says fondly. 

He presses a soft kiss to the top of Pete’s head before closing his eyes, and letting sleep take over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol sorry I hurt Pete like that but it’s for the character development   
> Comment and kudos please! It keeps me writing <3  
> You can contact me at [my tumblr sits-with-cats](http://sits-with-cats.tumblr.com/)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pete tells his friends the news about his parents. Gerard comes home from college with a surprise visit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter is later than usual, I had band today and wasn’t able to type this up, but Gerard is finally here!!   
> For reference here are their ages again   
> Gerard: Freshmen in college  
> Frank: Senior in high school  
> Andy: Junior in high school  
> Joe: Junior in high school  
> Mikey: Sophomore in high school  
> Pete: Sophomore in high school  
> Patrick: Sophomore in high school

Mikey turns his head on the grass, slowly opening his eyes. He feels a head shift on his chest, nuzzling closer into him. 

“Pete?” He asks.

“Morning, Mikey.” Pete says, looking up at him.

“Morning, how long have you been awake?” He looks down, pressing his nose to the top of Pete’s hair.

“Not long, it’s been a few minutes. What time is it?”

Mikey pulls out his phone and ignores the texts he got from varying people. “Six thirty, we have to get to school, come on.”

Pete pushes off Mikey’s chest and stands up. He holds out his hand and pulls Mikey off the ground. He wraps his arms around Mikey’s middle, giving him a hug. Mikey rests his nose in Pete’s hair, smiling into it.

“Thank you, for last night. You put yourself in deep shit with your mom to help me.”

“It’s no problem, Pete. You needed me, so I stayed.” He pulls back just a bit and bends his head down, pressing a soft kiss to Pete’s lips.

Pete smiles and kisses back gently, “so, yesterday…” He says as he pulls away.

“Yeah.” Mikey grins back. “So, Pete Wentz, will you be my boyfriend.”

Pete scrunches his nose up, “no fair, I wanted to ask you. But, yes, I’ll be your boyfriend, if you’re mine too.”

“Of course I’ll be your boyfriend.” Mikey leans down again and kisses him again before pulling back completely, grabbing his backpack.

“Alright, I brought a change of shirt with me, you have a hoodie in your locker, we can change at school so we’re wearing different clothes.”

Pete nods and takes Mikey’s hand, walking with him to the school. It’s not very far from the lake, only up the hill and through a few neighborhoods. They arrive at school with enough time to change and still be the first ones in Mr. Cole’s room, waiting for the others to walk in.

It’s barely ten minutes later when Patrick and Joe walk in, quickly followed by Frank and Andy.

Frank jumps up on a lab table, resting his feet on the metal stool, “so, what’s up, Pete?” He asks.

“Yeah, you alright? The message seemed pretty serious last night.” Andy asks, leaning back on the lab table Frank is sitting on.

“Well, um, first I’d like to so say that Mikey and I have started dating, it happened last night but it was too late to tell any of you.” 

Frank laughs a bit, “is that seriously what you called us all in for? We all knew it was going to happen sooner or later.”

“Thanks for your support, Frank,” Mikey rolls his eyes, “but that was one of two things. Pete you ready to tell them?”

Pete takes a deep breath, Mikey puts a hand on his shoulder and squeezes lightly, trying to comfort him. “My parents, they’re getting a divorce.”

Patrick doesn’t waste a second, quickly running over and almost tackling Pete into a tight hug. “Pete, I’m so sorry.” He whispers, barely loud enough for the others to hear.

Pete rests his head in Patrick’s neck, thankful his friends are understanding like this. “Thank’s ‘Trick. It’s alright though, I saw it coming.”

Joe lets them have their moment for a bit longer before walking and joining the hug, wrapping his arms around the two boys, Mikey and the other boys doing the same, giving Pete as much comfort as they can.

“Thank’s guys, this means a lot.” Pete sniffles.

“No problem, Pete, we’ll always be here for you.” Andy tells him. “What’s going to happen now,  what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know, it’s up to them really. I don’t have much say in the divorce, but I did snap last night and left, me and Mikey slept at the lake last night.”

“I know, Gerard texted me last night, he says your mom is pissed, and him and your dad aren’t that happy either.” Frank says.

Mikey shrugs. “I think I’ll manage.”

“So are you going to go home tonight or are you going to stay at the lake?” Joe asks.

“We’re going back to the lake tonight, only for another night or so. I have to face my parents at some point.” Pete says. “I’ll take Mikey with me for moral support.”

“That’s a good idea, they won’t yell at you if your friend is with you.” Frank says.

Pete nods and relaxes a bit more into the hug, which at this point is a standing cuddle between the six boys. They stay like that for a bit longer, none of the boys willing to let go.

“I left for five minutes.” A voice in the doorway says.

They stick their heads up, out of the hug, to see Mr. Cole standing in the classroom with an amused expression.

They break away from the hug, each of them straightening their clothes, all a little embarrassed.

“Sorry.” Mikey says sheepishly.

“It’s alright, it’s actually sweet seeing boys your age give each other affection, but the bell is going to ring soon, so get to class.”

 

The rest of the day goes by quickly enough, classes serving as distractions to the two boys whose minds are swimming with thoughts. At the end of the day Pete meets up with Mikey at his locker, leaning against the neighboring ones as he watches his boyfriend pack his backpack.

“So, what are we going to do?” Pete asks as Mikey zips his backpack up.

“Well, my parents don’t come home from work until four-thirty, five-ish, so I was thinking we go there, grab some snacks, maybe another change of shirt, then go to the lake. After school tomorrow we can go to your house, if you’re ready to face your parents then.”

Pete nods, “sounds like a plan. Frank said we can hang out at his place until we need sleep, or until his parents come home.”

“Nice.” Mikey pulls on his backpack and takes Pete’s hand.

They walk outside the school and make their way to Mikey’s house, it’s not that far of a walk, it goes by quickly once they start talking to each other. Once they arrive Mikey unlocks the door and looks around, making sure nobody is home before walking inside with Pete.

They quickly get to work, Mikey running to the kitchen and packing as much snack food as he can fit into his backpack without making is bust open, mostly granola bars and pretzels with whatever trail mix they have in pantry.

Pete runs upstairs to Mikey’s bedroom, finding an old backpack and shoving two shirts with a hoodie for Mikey in there as well as another blanket.

He runs back downstairs to meet Mikey at the front door, who had already finished his own task. “What time is it?”

“Four fifteen, we have to go now.” Mikey grabs Pete’s hand and runs out of the house.

He makes sure to lock the door behind him so it looks like they were never there. They run down the sidewalk, trying to get to Frank’s as fast as they can. The normal twenty minute walk is cut in half with their sprinting.

They sprint up the path to his front door, opening it and running inside without knocking, unintentionaly slamming the door behind them.

“Frank, we’re here!” Mikey calls as he tries to catch his breath.

“Upstairs!” Frank shouts back.

They take another moment to breath before walking upstairs together. They get into Frank’s bedroom and drop their bags on the floor and plopping down next to each other.

“You guys look tired.” Frank says, amused.

“No shit.” Mikey says, laying on his back.

 

For the next few hours they stay like that, not doing anything of much importance. They work on a bit of homework together before they get bored and moved on to literally anything else. Patrick came over for a bit until he was called back home by his mother an hour later.

 

They’re not doing anything particular when they hear the front door open, and someone step in. The three of them sit up and look around, they weren’t expecting any of their other friends.

Their thoughts are interrupted when they hear the voice downstairs. “Frank, babe, you home? The front door was unlocked.”

Mikey shoots up, “Shit!” He whispers harshly, “Shit, shit, shit, shit. It’s Gerard.”

Pete begins to panic, looking around the room for an escape route while Frank stands up and walks to the door.

“I’m upstairs, Gee! I’ll be down in a minute!”

“This is bad.” Pete says quietly, still very obviously panicking.

“You’re telling me,” Frank grumbles, standing up, “I gave my last bottle of lube to Patrick and Joe.”

“Frank!” Mikey says.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. I’ll go keep Gerard downstairs for a bit, find a way out.” Frank leaves his room, his footsteps heard going down the steps.

Mikey puts a backpack on and tosses the other to Pete, “put this on, we’re going out the window.”

“We’re what now?” Pete catches the back and puts in on quickly, fumbling a bit.

“You heard me, come on, we’ll do it quickly, don’t make any noise.” Mikey goes out the window legs first, jumping the large amount before landing safely on the ground.

“Mikey, I’m much shorter than you, I don’t think-”

“You’ll be fine, I’ve seen you jump from the top of a tree just to tackle Joe on the grass.”

“That’s different it was an act of revenge!” Pete nearly hisses.

“Come on, I’ll catch you!”

“Your arms will break!”

“No they won’t, jump out!” Mikey calls, holding his arms out for him.

Pete gulps, looking back, he hears Frank and Gerard talking downstairs, he doesn’t know how long Frank will be able to keep Gerard from coming upstairs.

“Promise you’ll catch me?”

“Promise.” Mikey says, keeping his arms out for him.

Pete takes one last look through the room before climbing out the window and jumping down, making sure the angle won’t be hard or painful for Mikey to catch him. He braces himself for a painful impact but it doesn’t come, just an ‘oof’ from his boyfriend as he catches him.

Pete opens his eyes and smiles, “you caught me.”

“I said I would, didn’t I?” Mikey smiles back before setting Pete on the ground and taking his hand.

They make sure their bags are on secure before running as fast as they can away from the house, praying that Gerard didn’t see them.

 

“Gerard, you’re home!” Frank runs down the steps and jumps onto his boyfriend. “I’m so happy! What are you doing back?” He twists them around to walk towards the living room, away from the stairs.

“Missed you mainly.” He runs his hands along Frank’s side, “but, my mom called me telling me Mikey was acting up the past few weeks, plus she said he didn’t come home last night.”

Frank sits the two of them down and sits on his lap to keep him on the couch. “I missed you too.” He kisses his lips.

Gerard kisses back gently with a smile, “I went home first, drop my stuff off and everything, but Mikey wasn’t there. Do you know where he is?”

Frank swallows and tries to keep a straight face. “No, I don’t.”

Gerard frowns, “damn, I’m worried about him. My parents aren’t the best you know, I mean my dad is okay most of the time, but my mom is usually awful. If I didn’t love art so much I made it my life and became actually good at it they would have been just as bad to me as they are to him, maybe even worse regarding school.”

He puts his hands around Frank’s waist, pulling him closer and resting his head on his shoulder. Frank frowns, he feels terrible for keeping the truth from his boyfriend, he deserves to know. Gerard won’t go to his parents over this.

He pulls back and takes a deep breath, “I do know where he is, but you can’t go there to see him. Not right now anyway, he needs to be alone with Pete for a bit.”

Gerard huffs, “I want a beginning to end explanation about who the hell is this Pete guy is, and who are all these new friends you and Mikey suddenly have. I’ve been hearing about them for weeks now, and Mikey keeps trying to add me in a group chat with a bunch of high schoolers I don’t know, and also why my brother is basically trying to run away from home with this boy.”

Frank takes a deep breath, “okay, this is a bit of a story so here we go. It all started about a few months ago, before midterms.”

“That was a while ago.” Gerard frowns.

“Yeah, I know. Well, the full story starts with your mom found out about Mikey’s grade in chem being not so great and she flipped out at him and Mikey got sent to his room, and that night he snuck out.”

“He what?” Gerard nearly yells.

He sinks back a bit, “I take it he didn’t tell you he snuck out.”

“No, he didn’t.” He says stiffly. 

“Well, calm down, it’s not that big of a deal, we used to sneak out all the time to see each other. Anyway, Mikey snuck out at like midnight and went to a park where he met Pete, they bonded over having shitty parents and Pete took him to a small lake near by and they basically became best friends overnight.”

Gerard nods, “okay, so that’s how he met Pete. What about the others?”

“That night Pete told Mikey that he has a friend that could tutor him, Andy, so Mikey met up with him in the morning and then at lunch he dragged me to sit with Pete and Andy at lunch where we met Patrick, who’s Pete’s best friend and Joe and everything was great for a while, I really like all four of them, until last night when Patrick and Pete got into a huge fight and then Pete went back to his own house only for his parents to tell him they’re getting a divorce.”

“Oh… Oh shit.” Gerard’s eyes widen.

“Yeah, it’s pretty awful. So anyway, Pete said some things to his parents and stormed off to your house where Mikey snuck out and walked with him to the lake to comfort him and be with him for a little while, only your mom found out he snuck out and called him, bitching him out so Mikey just hung up on her after she insulted him terribly. After that Pete made up with Patrick over the phone and then Mikey and him slept at the lake last night.”

“Okay, so essentially yesterday was the worst day of Pete’s life and Mikey was there to comfort him and make sure he was okay and not alone.”

“Yeah, pretty much. This morning they came to school together and changed here, telling us everything that happened the night before, and after school they grabbed a bunch of stuff from your house, before you and your parents came home, and came here for a few hours and they were upstairs when you got here, but they probably have left my room, somehow. I was sent down here to distract you so they could make an escape.”

Gerard frowns a bit more. “So the jumping into my arms and kissing me, that was part of a plan, you didn’t actually-”

Frank cuts him off quickly with a kiss, “no, no. I would have done that anyway, regardless if they were up there or not.”

Gerard smiles, “good, I liked that a lot, I also like this, you in my lap. You’re still shorter than me, and it better stay that way.”

Frank rolls his eyes, amused. “I’ll try, but that was all that happened, and I heard them leave a bit ago, so they’re definitely at the lake right now.”

“We should go there, I need to talk to my brother.”

Frank sighs and gets off his lap. “Okay, we can go, but first lets go to the drugstore.”

Gerard stands up with him, taking Frank’s hand in his own, using his other to pull his keys out of his jacket pocket. “Sure, but why?”

“Give them a little longer to talk before we see them, plus we need more lube if you’re staying here this weekend, and possibly more condoms, I don’t know if we have many left.”

Gerard nods and pulls Frank outside to his car, happy to spend time with his boyfriend once again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really like having Gerard part of the group. I’ve been thinking about bringing Ray into the story but I don’t think there’s much of a place for him so I’m going to opt out this time around  
> Comment and kudos please! It keeps me writing <3  
> You can contact me at [my tumblr sits-with-cats](http://sits-with-cats.tumblr.com/)


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pete and Mikey hide away for another day before confronting their parents with the support of their friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oof this chapter is a lot and carries some heavy themes. I think there’s only going to be two more chapters after this, I’ll have to end it in some sort of cheesy way.  
> For reference here are their ages again  
> Gerard: Freshmen in college  
> Frank: Senior in high school  
> Andy: Junior in high school  
> Joe: Junior in high school  
> Mikey: Sophomore in high school  
> Pete: Sophomore in high school  
> Patrick: Sophomore in high school

Pete and Mikey run down the hill in front of the lake, collapsing at the bottom, both out out breath. Pete rolls over onto his back resting his hand on his stomach while Mikey sits on his knees, catching his breath.

“Holy shit, that was so close.” Pete says.

“It was fucking terrifying, that’s what it was.” Mikey lays back, covering his face with his hands.

They stay like that for a while, laying on their backs, trying to catch their breath from their intense sprinting. Eventually they roll over to their sides, so they can look at each other. 

“I can’t hide from him forever.” Mikey says quietly after long a moment of quiet between the two of them. “He’s my brother, and as far as I care the only family I have right now.”

“We’re your family.” Pete says quietly.

Mikey sits up, cross legged. He smiles at Pete and reaches over to take his hand. “I know, you and the others, especially Frank, are my family, but I’ve known my brother my whole life. I’m not saying blood is thicker than water, I’m saying my brother is my best friend and I’ve already hidden things from him. I can’t lose him.”

“So, Gerard to you is like how Patrick is to me.” Pete makes the comparison, trying to understand where Mikey is coming from.

“Exactly, thank you for understanding.” He bends down to kiss him gently.

Pete responds by lifting his head up at a better angle and kissing back a little less gentle, making Mikey smile into the kiss, they kiss for a soft minute before something hits the side of Mikey’s face. Mikey flinches and looks down to see what hit him, pulling up a condom.

“What the fuck?” Pete says, thoroughly confused.

“Safe sex is the best sex.” The two boys look up to see Frank standing above them, stifling his laughter while Gerard stands next to him, holding an open box of condoms and another small box carrying a bottle of lube.  

They both relax, realizing who it is standing next to him. Pete sits up and takes the condom, catching the boxes that Gerard toss at them with ease.

“Frankie told me you two got together, I’m here to tell you spit is not a viable lube.”

“I know that, I’m not an idiot.” Mikey grumbles, embarrassed.

Pete holds his hand out for Gerard. “Hi, I’m Pete, we haven’t met.”

Gerard looks at his hand before taking it, sitting down next to him. “You’re polite, I like you. I’m Gerard, you don’t seem like a horrible person, I’m okay with you violating my brother.”

MIkey and Pete both flush a dark red. “He’s not violating my anything.” Mikey mumbles.

“Give it a few months.” Gerard waves his hand, letting Frank sit down in his lap, putting an arm around him. “Anyway, you’re okay right, Mikey?” He says, dropping the humor completely, showing genuine worry for his brother.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry for running away from you…”

“Dude, it’s fine, don’t you remember running away to Ray’s house whenever I had so much as a minor problem, hiding away from everyone, including you?”

“I remember that.” Frank glares at his boyfriend.

Gerard smiles sheepishly, “sorry, Frankie.” He kisses his cheek.

“Do you guys really have to be all gross now, In front of us?” Pete says, looking away from them.

“You try being away from each other for months on end.” Frank says sharply.

Pete shrinks back a bit, moving closer to Mikey. “Point taken.”

“Good. So, Mikey, when are you going back home?” Frank asks.

“I don’t know, probably tomorrow. I don’t want to go back today, or leave Pete alone tonight. I’ll probably come home after we go talk to Pete’s parents first.”

“Okay, you can bring Pete back home with you if you think that’ll help your case. I’m staying until tuesday, then I have to go back up to school.”

Frank sighs sadly, turning his head into Gerard’s neck. He hates being away from him for so long. Gerard kisses his hair softly, he doesn’t like it either, but it’s just how it is, they can’t change it.

“Don’t be sad, it’s the first week of April, just another month and then I come home for the summer.”

“Yeah, and then we have another month after you come home.” Mikey points out.

Frank shakes his head, “No, I’m a senior, I get off a week after Gerard comes home, you guys still have another month of school.”

Mikey and Pete frown, both realizing what that really means, Frank leaving them in school, and being able to do things not restricted by a high school schedule for a month before they’re able to.

Frank stands up and pulls Gerard up, “come on, we still have another hour before my parents come home, let’s go.”

Gerard bends down and kisses the top of Mikey’s head. “Stay safe, I’ll see you tomorrow, and I’ll try to be home when you come back.”

Mikey lifts his head up and smiles, he’ll never be too old for affection from his brother. Frank waves his goodbye to the two boys.

“I won’t be at school tomorrow, I’m faking sick, if you’re with Gerard all afternoon I’ll want him during the day.”

Mikey nods, understandable the way those two are, he would be surprised if Frank was at school tomorrow instead of with his brother. 

“Good night.” He waves them off, watching them walk up the hill and eventually disappear over the hill of wildflowers.

 

\---

 

The next day goes smooth, Frank kept his promise and didn’t show up at school the next day, no one else was surprised after they found out Gerard was home for the weekend. Gerard accepted the invitation to the group chat with the six high schoolers, reluctantly, but has begun to get to know Mikey’s new friends.

At the end of the school day Mikey and Pete waste no time getting to Pete’s house, going straight there from school. The walk is short, but Pete is near shaking the whole time, beyond nervous. Mikey takes his hand to try and help calm him, it helps for the most part, the comfort of it.

They stop in front of his front door, Pete staring at it, taking a deep breath. He squeezes Mikey’s hand once before unlocking his front door and walking inside.

“Mom, Dad. I’m home.” He calls into the house.

“Pete?” He hears his mother say from his living room. “Is that you?”

“Yeah, it’s me.” He walks into the living room with Mikey, still holding his hand tight. “I brought someone with me, my boyfriend.”

Mikey hides his surprise of how quickly Pete introduced him as his boyfriend, and holds his hand out to Pete’s parents. “Hello, we’ve met a few times before, I’m Mikey Way.” He politely introduces himself again. 

Him and Pete have hung out here a few times, so it’s no surprise that his parents know who he is, but it comes a shock that they’re dating. That’s something his parents never would have expected. 

Pete’s dad shakes his hand first. “I’m Peter’s father.” He eyes Mikey up and down, the ripped skinny jeans, old jacket thrown over a tattered T-shirt, mixed with grass stains from sleeping outside, along with a dirty beenie over greasy, shaggy hair isn’t the best first impression.

“I’m his mother.” The woman behind him says, taking his hand after his father, she appreciates how polite Mikey is.

Mikey gives her a small smile. He’s lead to the couch by Pete, sitting close next to him. Both his parents sit across from them.

“We have to go to Mikey’s house after this, so I’m going to get straight to the point.” Pete starts the conversation. “How is this divorce going to work? I don’t turn sixteen until June, and even then somebody has to get custody of me. Who am I living with, preferably whoever gets this house, because I refuse to move anywhere, especially out of the school system.”

Mikey sits quietly while Pete talks, letting him take a stand with his parents, saying all the thoughts and questions on his mind, patiently waiting for them to respond.

“Well, your father will be getting the house, but we were thinking of shared custody, neither of us are unfit to have you, and neither of us are willing to give you up, it’s not worth a custody battle.”

“If shared custody, where will I live?”

“If you don’t want to move houses, then you’ll live with me, and your mothers on weekends and every other holiday.” Pete’s father answers.

“Okay, where are you living?” He asks his mother.

“With your grandmother until I find a place of my own.” She answers.

Pete frowns, “great, she hates me already, wait until she finds out I have a boyfriend.” He leans back and Mikey squeezes his hand, trying to give him some comfort. Pete squeezes back as a small thank you.

“She doesn’t hate you, and I’m sure she’ll be accepting of you… Probably… Maybe don’t tell her?” She suggests.

Pete nods, “yeah, probably for the best…”

“About the boyfriend thing,” his father clears his throat, getting their attention, “how long has it been going on?”

“Me and Mikey as a couple or knowing I like boys?”

“Both.”

“Well, me and Mikey got together two days ago, but that’s only officially, we’ve basically been dating for awhile I think, or at least our friends like to comment that. As for knowing I like boys, it was freshman year… no, eighth grade I figured out that I’m bisexual.”

His mother nods, trying to understand, “okay, and you kept this a secret because?”

“Your rude ass comments about same sex marriage and how it’s wrong, and how you think that gays are ruining family values. News flash, it hurts when you say that stuff.” 

His father doesn’t say anything in reply, just sits there stiffly, pondering over his sons words. His mother is taken aback by such a snappy response from him.

Pete sits up, not liking the uncomfortable silence, “if we’re done here we need to go to Mikey’s house now.”

“It was lovely to meet you.” Mikey plasters on a fake smile for them.

“And you, will you come home tonight, Pete?” His mother asks.

He nods, “yeah, I will. Bye.” He pulls Mikey out of the house, stopping on the front porch.

Pete shuts the door behind him and turns to hug Mikey as tight as he can. “Holy shit, that was terrifying.” He breathes out. “Thank you, so much, for being here.”

Mikey kisses the top of Pete’s head, “you did great in there. I’m so proud of you for finally standing up to them.”

Pete physically relaxes into the hug, letting Mikey hold him for a few moments. He pulls back and straightens himself, “okay, let’s get going to your house.”

“I texted Gerard already, he’ll be at home when we get there.” Mikey takes his hand once again and they begin the short walk to Mikey’s house.

 

They arrive at Mikey’s front door soon enough. Pete feels Mikey physically relax when they notice Gerard’s car in their driveway. Mikey opens his front door and walks inside, keeping Pete close to him, not wanting to let go of him, even for a short moment.

“Mikey, is that you?” Gerard calls from the other room.

“Yeah, Pete’s with me.” Mikey calls back, kicking his shoes off, Pete doing the same.

Mikey’s parents have met Pete before, having hung out at the Way household many times before.

“We’re in the living room.”

Mikey takes Pete to the other room, seeing his mother, father, and brother all sitting on the couch together. He takes a seat on the love seat, Pete sitting down next to him, never letting go of his hand.

“Michael.” His mother addresses him.

His mother looks visibly angry with him, like she’s holding back yelling at her son. His father looks upset, more disappointed than angry, but still not happy with his son leaving for two nights without giving him any information why. Gerard looks at the two boys on the loveseat sympathetically, knowing they’re about to get a lecture.

“Yeah, mom?”

“Where the hell have you been?” She says, restricting herself to keep an inside voice.

“With Pete.” It wasn’t a lie, he tries to keep his answers short, not giving away much detail.

“Why?” His father asks this one.

“He needed me.” He says plainly.

“Why?” He asks again.

“I’m sorry Mr. Way, this is all my fault.” Pete speaks up, directing all attention on himself, he can’t bare Mikey getting punished for something he caused. “I needed him with me, I was in a fight with my best friend and my parents gave me some devastating news and I needed Mikey to help calm me down and stay the night with me.”

“Mikey specifically? Why not anyone else?”

“He knows me the best, other than Patrick, who I was fighting with. I needed Mikey to be with me.”

“What news did you get that was so important that you needed my son at eleven at night?” Mikey’s mother asks, clearly still unhappy.

“My parents are getting a divorce.”

Both adults get quiet after Pete speaks up, they understand with news like that you need support of your friends, and since he was fighting with someone close to him, he needed Mikey more than ever. Gerard smirks from behind his parents and gives them a thumbs up. 

Mikey squeezes Pete’s hand gently and kisses his temple gently, they’re almost in the clear now.

“We’re sorry, we didn’t-” His mother starts, Pete cutting her off.

“It’s alright, you didn’t know. I just needed Mikey with me that night, and he was there for me.”

“Why didn’t you tell us this, Mikey?” She attempts to shift the blame on him, but it doesn’t work.

“I tried to, but you insulted me, so I hung up and stayed with Pete anyway.”

Pete leans more into Mikey, shifting so he’s more comfortable next to him. Mikey’s father catches every subtle movement. After watching Gerard hide his relationship with Frank for months before coming out to him, he knows every romantic touch, even if they’re trying to hide it. Between the hand holding, the near cuddling on the couch, and Mikey’s kiss to Pete’s temple that he attempted to be subtle with, his father knows exactly what’s going on here.

“So, are you two dating?”

The sudden question surprises the two boys. Mikey sits up straight and clears his throat, “uh, yeah actually, we are.”

“When did you plan on telling us?”

“Well, it just recently happened. I don’t know when I was planning on it, but it happened now.”

“Yeah, I only found out yesterday.” Gerard says.

“You told us you didn’t see Mikey yesterday.” His mother turns to him.

“I didn’t, Frank told me when I saw him.” He covers up his slip easily.

“This is okay right?” Mikey brings the attention back onto himself. “Me and Pete, dating and stuff.”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t it be? Gerard and Frank are okay, so are you two, provided you keep the door open when you hang out together.” His father says.

Mikey nods, Gerard and Frank have the same rules, keeping the basement door, where Gerard’s bedroom is, wide open whenever they’re together.

“Okay, and I’m sorry for not telling you I left, or the situation that was happening, but I’m not sorry for leaving. Pete needed me, so I had to go.”

“We understand, we’re not happy about it, but we understand.” His father says. “Just don’t sneak out again.”

“I won’t” Mikey lies, there’s no way he’s going to give up the midnight visits at the lake with Pete.”

 

Hours later Pete had left, keeping his promise with his parents about coming home that night. Mikey found himself in his brother’s bedroom in the basement, laying face first on the bed, not willing to get up.

“Today was a lot more terrifying than I thought.” Mikey says.

Gerard sits down next to him, rubbing his upper back gently. “Yeah, it was pretty tough for you. So you went to Pete’s before coming here and talking to mom and dad?”

Mikey nods, “yeah, we talked to his parents before coming here, he said a lot of stuff that needed to be said. He went home because he needs to talk about more things, alone this time.

“That’s good, hopefully he can build a better bond with them.”

“Yeah… Hey, Gee?” Mikey asks, timidly.

“Yeah?”

“Can I sleep down here tonight, with you?”

Gerard smiles softly, they haven’t done that since they were kids. “Yeah, of course you can.”

Mikey smiles back, “Thank you.”

Gerard thinks back to all the times Mikey would climb into his bed in the middle of the night because he would notice his brother having terrible nightmares. Gerard would never admit that the nightmares were that bad, but Mikey knew, even as a kid he knew. He would pretend to be scared and sleep next to his brother until his terrors went away, that was of course, until they started happening to Mikey as well, then the sleeping together became much needed for the both of them.

“I’m going to put on my pajamas and get ready for bed, you can set up a movie and stuff.” Mikey rolls over and gets off the bed, walking upstairs.

Gerard picks up around his room, shoving all of his sketchbooks into one pile, along with a bucket for his pencils and markers. He throws clothes into separate piles around the room, making sure it’s clean enough for another human to sleep in before setting up a movie for them to watch.

He pulls off his shirt and replaces it with a tattered old one, and pulling on some pajama pants. By the time he’s finished brushing his teeth and fixing the covers Mikey walks downstairs with some old stuffed animals they used to play with when they were younger.

Gerard smiles nostalgically at them, they would have many adventures with those stuffed bears, just the two of them.

“You look comfy.” Gerard comments. “Now, horror or disney animation?”

“Disney.” Mikey answers easily.

“Figured, Lion King is already in the DVD player, come on, let’s get in bed.”

Gerard grabs the remote and gets under the covers, Mikey following, keeping a distance between himself and his brother. 

Gerard frowns a bit, “Dude, you’re so far away, come closer.” He holds his arms out for his brother.

“Oh, I don-”

“Come on, snuggle with me. When we were younger you couldn’t keep your tiny limbs off of me, and now we’re watching the Lion King, I need some serious love right now.”

Mikey smiles and moves closer, cuddling with his brother, he really did miss being able to do this with his brother. They haven’t done it in years, but he’s missed his brother a lot since he went off to college, it’s nice to be able to be together again.

It’s halfway through the movie when Mikey falls asleep, his head tucked under Gerard’s neck, snuggled close. His brother makes sure he’s covered completely by the blankets so he can have a proper night's rest.

“Sleep tight, Mikey, you’ve had a rough day.” Gerard says softly to his sleeping brother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love sibling relationships like the Way Brothers so much I think it's so sweet  
> Comment and kudos please! It keeps me writing <3  
> You can contact me at [my tumblr sits-with-cats](http://sits-with-cats.tumblr.com/)


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gerard meets everyone in person for the first time!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kind of a filler chapter but I wanted it to happen. The next chapter will be the last.  
> For reference here are their ages again  
> Gerard: Freshmen in college  
> Frank: Senior in high school  
> Andy: Junior in high school  
> Joe: Junior in high school  
> Mikey: Sophomore in high school  
> Pete: Sophomore in high school  
> Patrick: Sophomore in high school

The next morning Frank walks into the Way household and is informed that both boys are sleeping in the basement together. He makes his way downstairs to find the two boys still asleep in the same bed, not as cuddled up the night before but not pushing away from each other.

Frank jumps on the bed, startling both of them when he shouts, “MIKEY!”

Mikey’s eyes shoot open to see Frank on the end of the bed. He groans and rubs his eyes, irritated. He was having such a good sleep, and Frank rudely interrupted it.

“What are you doing?” He asks grumbling.

“Waking you guys up. It’s ten thirty, and your mom made pancakes for us.” He leans over and flicks Gerard’s nose until he opens his eyes.

Gerard bats his hand away, still sleepy. “You suck.” He mumbles, groggily.

Frank leans down and pecks his lips gently, “I’m sorry, but I want breakfast.” 

Frank gets off the bed and pulls his boyfriend up, glaring at Mikey until he stands up as well. They walk up the stairs together to see the kitchen table already set with pancakes on a tray in the center.

They each take a plate and stack them high with pancakes, as much as they can handle for the first round. Mrs. Way walks into the kitchen to pour coffee into her travel mug before she leaves for work that morning.

“Well good morning to you too.” She says, laughing lightly as the three boys stuff their faces with pancakes.

“Mornin’ Ma.” Gerard says, while Mikey and Frank give small grunting noises, their mouths full of breakfast food.

She gives them a smile and makes small talk with Gerard for a few moments, telling him their father already left and she’s on her way out for work.

Once she’s out of the house Frank turns to Mikey, “So, what are you doing today?”

“I don’t know, probably going to hang out with Pete or something.” Mikey says, shrugging. Pete is usually his default.

“You guys are actually dating now and it makes me pretty happy, especially because I fucking called it.” Frank smiles.

“I know you called it, Andy told me that you thought we had, and I quote, ‘the perfect teenage love story.’” Mikey takes his final bite of pancake when he’s done talking.

“I want to meet all these guys in person.” Gerard says. “They seem pretty funny from the stories you’ve been telling.”

“We could do that today, go to Joe’s and hang out in his basement, just mess around and shit.” Frank says, wiping syrup off his face.

“Yeah, I’ll call him and get ready, I have to shower” Mikey stands up and rinses off his empty plate before putting it in the dishwasher.

He grabs a sandwich size ziploc bag before running upstairs to grab his phone and a towel. Once in the bathroom starts the shower to warm up the water before hanging up the towel and putting his phone in the airlock bag, zipping it tight. He strips off his clothes and steps into the shower, placing his plastic covered phone on Gerard’s conditioner bottle.

He runs the water through his hair and dials Joe’s phone number through the plastic, knowing it’ll work.

“Hello?” Joe answers after only a few rings.

“Hey, Joe, what’s up?”

“Nothing really, dude where are you? What’s all that noise?”

“I’m in the shower, talking to you.” He squirts some shampoo on his hand and starts washing his hair.

“Okay, um. How the fuck?”

“Ziploc bags are airtight, and protect your phone from water. You should try it, it makes showering while listening to music a lot easier.”

“You’re insane, but whatever man, did you want something?”

“Yeah, Gerard is home for the weekend and wants to meet everyone.” 

“You guys should come over, I actually just cleaned the basement last night so praise me for it when you get here. I’ll call Patrick and Andy, you call Pete. Come over around noon- wait.” He stops himself mid sentence. “Are you naked right now?”

“No, Joe. I’m showering fully clothed, actually in full winter gear, I have my snow pants on.” Mikey says sarcastically.

“Okay, tone down the sass, fucker. I’ll see you soon.” Joe hangs up while Mikey rinses the shampoo out of his hair.

Once it’s all out he picks up his phone again and calls Pete’s number, setting it down again as he grabs the loofah and body wash.

“Mikeyway!” Pete answers.

“Hey, Pete, what’s up?”

“Nothing much, I talked to my parents last night, I’m going to stay with my dad until my mom gets her own house and then switch between them every other week instead of just the weekends, depending on how close she lives. I’m not switching schools, I made that clear.”

“That’s great, Pete!” Mikey says, happy that his boyfriend isn’t moving away from him.

“I know! Hey, what’s that noise, are you in the shower right now?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Well, what are you doing in the shower?” He says suggestively.

It completely goes over Mikey’s head. “I’m washing my arm.”

“Mikey,” Pete sighs, “I was trying to, you know…”

“Wha- OH!” Mikey flushes a deep red, realizing what he missed. “Oh, uh. No, sorry. Too early.” He doesn’t specify if it’s too early in the relationship or too early in the morning, either way Pete stops without question.

He laughs a bit at his boyfriends flustered voice, “okay. Well, did you call with a specific reason?”

“Yeah, actually. Since Gerard is home for the weekend he wants to meet everyone in person, we’re all going to meet up at Joe’s around noon, you wanna come?”

“Sure, I’ll see you then.”

“Gerard, Frank, and I will pick you up a bit before noon, I have to finish showering now. Love you, bye.”

“Love you too.” Pete hangs up.

Mikey gets through the rest of his shower fairly quickly, it’s when he’s drying off his hair he realizes he told Pete he loved him over the phone.

“FUCK!” He shouts, quickly wrapping the towel around his waist and running into his room, slamming the door behind him so he can panic.

Frank and Gerard heard the shout and the slamming of the door, both curious, they walk up the stairs and knock on Mikey’s bedroom door.

“Hey, we heard a bang downstairs, you okay?” Frank asks.

“I fucked up!”

“What did you do?”

“I told Pete that I loved him without realizing it.”

Frank laughs a bit, “oh my god. What did he say back?”

“Well, he said it back to me, but I don’t know if he realized what he said either.”

“Then that’s good Mikey. You’re freaking out for no reason, stop getting your nipples in a twist.” Frank says, rolling his eyes a bit.

“I… I guess yeah…”

“Now hurry up and get dressed, it’s almost eleven thirty and we still need to go back to my house to grab like twenty packs of oreos.”

Mikey starts pulling clothes out of his closet, getting dressed as he talks. “Why do you have so many oreos? You don’t even like them.”

“Because Hurley thinks he’s funny. Iero, oreo. They sound similar.”

Mikey snorts, “that’s hilarious, Andy’s a genius.”

“Shut up, no he’s not. This is not funny.” Frank says seriously.

Mikey finishes getting dressed and walks out of his room, fresh and clean. Gerard leads them downstairs to his car outside, driving them to Frank’s house. Frank runs in quickly, coming back only a few minutes later with a tote bag full of oreos.

He gets back into the front seat and sets them down. There is three packs of regular oreos, two packs of double stuffed, one cinnamon bun flavor, one red velvet, and one half eaten pack of mint oreos.

“That mint pack is open.” Gerard comments, mostly just to ruffle his boyfriends feathers.

“Shut up. They’re not as gross as the others.” He turns to look out the window.

 

Gerard pulls out of Frank’s driveway and makes his way to Pete’s house. They all live within a few neighborhoods of each other, so the drive doesn’t take too long.

Mikey gets out of the car and knocks on the door. Pete’s father opens it and gives Mikey a polite smile.

“He’s upstairs, getting ready to go.”

“Thank you.” Mikey says, running up the stairs, busting Pete’s bedroom door open violently. “PETER!”

Pete turns around sharply only to see his boyfriend draped across the door, one leg over the door knob, arms spread to hold on either side of the frame. He busts out laughing, finding it hilarious.

“Oh my god.” He giggles out.

Mikey grins and takes his leg down, walking over and giving Pete a soft kiss. “You ready to go?”

Pete nods, “yeah, we don’t want to keep the lovebirds in the car waiting.”

“I swear, if they’re making out when we get in the car, I will cry.” Mikey says, completely seriously.

 

Frank and Gerard were, in fact, making out when Pete and Mikey got in the car. Didn’t even stop or notice when the boys climbed into the backseat. Mikey just sits there and silently cries, real, unforced tears, at the sight of his brother and best friend swapping spit in front of him.

Pete on the other hand laughs, very loud, startling both boys in the front seat. Gerard blushes and mumbles something inaudible, starting to drive to Joe’s, while Frank crosses his arms in irritation. 

They get to Joe’s house five minutes past noon, Andy and Patrick already there in Joe’s basement. They’re let inside the house by Mrs. Trohman, who greets them happily.

“Hello boys, they’re all downstairs already, I’d offer you some snacks but it looks like you’ve already bought your own.” She gestures to Frank’s hands.

Frank smiles, laughing lightly. “Yeah, would you like some?”

“Oh, no thank you, sweetie. I’m going to run to the store real fast, have fun boys.” She pinches Pete’s cheek lightly before walking out of the house.

Pete just smiles, “I love her. I’ve known her since preschool, she’s basically a second mom to me, right after Patrick’s mom.”

“Where does your own mother rank?” Frank asks as they walk down the steps.

“After Beyoncé.”

“Pete!” Patrick shouts as soon as he sees the four boys round the corner.

They walk in to see the three boys spread across a couch and several bean bag chairs surrounding a TV with several gaming systems hooked up to it.

“Patrick!” Pete lets go of Mikey’s hand and runs over to his best friend, who meets him halfway, giving each other a tight hug.”

“Wow, I feel so welcomed Patrick.” Frank says, faking offence as he sets the bag of oreos on top of a small coffee table in the center of the room.

He pushes Gerard down on a beanbag chair and sits next to him, not exactly on his lap but close enough. Gerard putting an arm around his waist. Mikey sits next to Joe on one side of the couch while Pete and Patrick take the other.

“No need to get sassy, Frankie.” Andy teases lightly.

“I just want to feel loved Andrew!” 

“You are loved.” Gerard says quietly, kissing the back of his neck.

“Okay, no. What we’re not gonna do is this lovey dovey crap. We have set rules here, no kissy couple shit.” Andy says, calling them out.

Frank sticks his tongue out at him and Gerard laughs a bit, “I take it you’re Andy? Mikey described you as ginger, cool voice, and sick of all the couples.”

“Yeah, that’s me, and very accurate.” Andy grins at him. “All my friends are in relationships with each other, I’m only the lonely.”

Pete stands and sits next to Andy on the bean bag chair, putting an arm around him. “I could set you up, you know. I could easily find a girl, or guy, to set you up with, one that doesn’t want sex.”

Andy turns his head to look at Pete and deadpans, “the last time you set one of us up was Patrick, and that ended with him climbing out the Olive Garden bathroom window wearing a wolf ear headband and a tail.”

“WE SAID WE WOULD NEVER DISCUSS THAT!” Patrick sits up abruptly and shouts, not wanting to relieve the horrifying experience. 

“No way! I have to hear this story!” Mikey exclaimed, sitting on the edge of his seat.

“Don’t worry Patrick,” Gerard says, “I go to art school. I’ve seen many furries do way worse things than climb out of a restaurant bathroom window.”

“I’m not a furry and no one is hearing that horrible story!” Patrick yells.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will for sure be the last, it’s been so much fun writing this fic  
> Comment and kudos please! It keeps me writing <3  
> You can contact me at [my tumblr sits-with-cats](http://sits-with-cats.tumblr.com/)


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fun times at the lake with Pete and Mikey (Final Chapter)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last Chapter!! This was originally supposed to be just a one shot and look what happened!! It was such a fun story to write and I’m so happy so many people enjoyed it!! I hope you all like the last chapter <3  
> For reference here are their ages again  
> Gerard: Freshmen in college  
> Frank: Senior in high school  
> Andy: Junior in high school  
> Joe: Junior in high school  
> Mikey: Sophomore in high school  
> Pete: Sophomore in high school  
> Patrick: Sophomore in high school

The afternoon of the boys hanging out quickly went by. Andy had to leave first, his mother calling him home to help her with something. At eleven thirty Gerard took Frank home, telling Mikey he’d cover for him if he wanted to spend the night at a friends.

Mikey appreciated it, since he wanted to spend more time with his friends. He did leave with Pete not long after his brother, the two of them taking a walk down to the lake.

 

“How long has Gerard been in college?” Pete asks as they walk down the hill of wildflowers.

“He’s a freshman in college, so only a year. He’s three years older than me.”

“So only a year older than Frank.”

“Yeah.” he says as he sits down at the bottom of the hill, picking at the grass. “Why do you ask?”

“No reason, he just seems so much older than us, yet like he’s the same age.” Pete says, sitting down next to him.

“Yeah, I get that feeling sometimes too. He’s my older brother, so I’ve always looked up to him. He seems to have everything all figured out, like he’s some big adult with a plan for the rest of his life, but in reality he’s just some nerd that’s not that much older than me, and doesn’t really have a plan for the rest of his life, he barely understands adulthood, he just likes comics a lot. I still look up to him a bunch though, he’s my big brother.”

Pete smiles at Mikey’s fond expression when he’s talking about his brother, “you really love him, don’t you. Not just because he’s your brother.”

“Yeah, he’s not just my brother, he’s my best friend.”

They sit in a comfortable silence for a bit, neither talking. Mikey plays with the grass, picking at the wildflowers. After a few minutes Pete stands up.

“Get up.” He tells Mikey.

“What, why?” Mikey asks, confused about the sudden action.

“Just do it.”

Pete begins to strip his clothes off, kicking off his shoes and socks first before pulling off his shirt and pulling down his pants, dropping them into a pile while he stands there in his boxers, debating if he should take them off or not.

“Pete, what are you doing?” Mikey asks with wide eyes.

“There is a lake right there. We have been coming here since January and we’ve never even thought to take a swim in it. Now it’s April, the start of spring, the lake shouldn’t be too cold. You need to take your clothes off so we can swim.”

Mikey stares at the half naked Pete in front of him, he thinks about it for a moment. It’s a crazy idea really, it’s the beginning of April, the lake is probably freezing still, even if the air is warmer. He eventually stands up and takes his shirt off, stripping until he’s in his boxers, same as Pete.

Pete grins and runs to the edge of the lake, where a small broken dock is, clearly it hasn’t been used for boats in years. Mikey chases after him and tackles him from behind, pushing them both into the water, both boys getting drenched, head to toe.

Pete splashes him playfully, “you dick! I was gonna jump in myself!”

Mikey giggles and sticks his tongue out at his boyfriend. “Too late.”

The water is freezing around them, the cooling night air not helping too much, but the two boys don’t notice, to occupied with each other. They play around with each other, splaying each other, swimming around the lake, never straying too far from the dock.

Mikey swims out to the center of the lake, dunking his head under the water, when he rises to the surface Pete is floating next to him.

“Touch the bottom?” He asks.

Mikey shakes his head, “nah, it’s too deep.”

“That’s alright.” Pete leans in and kisses Mikey gently.

Mikey smiles into the kiss, pressing his lips back gently. They’re both covered in lake water, their hair dripping it, while they wear nothing but boxers, shoulders deep in a lake nobody is supposed to know about.

Mikey breaks the kiss after a minute, resting his forehead on Pete’s. “You remember when I called you this morning, while I was showering?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Do you remember what I said before I hung up?”

Pete thinks for a moment before he nods, “yeah… what about it? If you’re going to say you didn’t-”

Mikey quickly presses his lips to Pete’s to cut him off. “I meant it, I really did. It’s just, well, we’ve been dating for less than a week. I can’t help but think we might be moving way too fast. I know we’ve known each other for months now, and we’ve been leading up to us dating the whole time, but everything is happening all at once and I-I don’t know if I’m comfortable with that. It took Gerard and Frank nine months into their relationship to say it to each other, and they’ve been pining after each other since middle school. I know we’re not them, and I feel something for you, I feel a big something for you, but, well I guess what I’m trying to say here is, it’s going to take me awhile to be able to say it again. It might be a long while until I’m ready to do much anything past light making out, I’m only fifteen, same as you until your birthday in June, mine in September, that’s a long time away from now. Just, please tell me you’re okay with that, please. I don’t want to lose you.”

Pete nods, he completely understands where Mikey is coming from, and he doesn’t want to pressure his boyfriend into doing anything he doesn’t want to do.

He presses a soft kiss to Mikey’s lips, resting his forehead on his. “You aren’t going to lose me over something like this. It’s like you said, we’re still young, and I feel the same way. We have a long time to do stuff like that, I won’t break up with you just because you can’t say ‘I love you’ after a week of dating.”

Mikey smiles, “thank you. You’re the best.”

“I’m really just being a decent human, but I’ll take the praise.” He leans in for another kiss.

They stay in the lake for only another minute before a cool breeze passes by and they shiver, starting to really feel the effects of the cold. They swim back to the dock, mutually deciding it’s time to get somewhere warm and dry.

They try and shake off the water as best they can, squeezing out as much as they can from their boxers and hair before picking up their clothes and walking back to Pete’s house half naked, praying nobody is awake at this hour to see them.

“Gerard says he’ll cover for me tonight, so my parents won’t be mad when I don’t come home.” Mikey says as they near Pete’s neighborhood.

“That’s good. When we get back to my house we can have quick showers to get the lake water off and get to bed.” They’ve had sleepovers before, Pete’s bed is big enough to fit the both of them.

They walk into Pete’s house quietly, not wanting to disturb his sleeping father. They go upstairs, carefully calculating their steps so the floorboards don’t creak.

“You can shower first,” Pete says, “there are towels in the bathroom and I’ll set you out pajamas.”

“Thanks. I’ll be out in a minute.” Mikey says, quickly going to the bathroom.

As Pete is getting clothes out for Mikey he hears the shower turn on. The bathroom isn’t near his father’s room, so he knows it won’t wake him up. He sets out clothes for his boyfriends and pulls back the covers on his bed, getting extra pillows for Mikey as well as another blanket, knowing that they’re both freezing after their swim in the lake. They’re most likely going to wake up with stuffy noses tomorrow, but he can’t bring himself to care, it was definitely worth it.

Mikey walks into Pete’s bedroom with towel dried hair and a towel around his waist. Pete smiles and walks over to peck his cheek.

“I set clothes out for you on the bed, I’ll be back in a minute.” He takes his own clothes with him to the shower, so he can change right after and slip into bed with Mikey.

Mikey looks around Pete’s room as he pulls on the clothes that are set out for him. He especially likes the shirt. It smells like Pete, he probably won’t get it back in the morning. He finishes towel drying his hair and hangs it up before getting under the covers, making himself comfortable while he waits for Pete to get out of the shower.

A few minutes later Pete walks back into the room, pajamas on and hair mostly dry as well. He crawls into bed next to Mikey, snuggling close for warmth. Mikey, of course, accepts the cuddle.

“Sleepy?” Pete asks, amused at his boyfriend who’s already about to fall asleep.

“A little.” Mikey admits with a yawn.

Pete nuzzles his head into Mikey’s neck, “I meant it too, you know.”

“Hmm?”

“What we said at the end of our conversation this morning. You said you meant it but can’t say it again. I meant it too.”

Mikey smiles, he presses a kiss to Pete’s hair. “Thank you, so much.”

“For what?”

“For everything.” Mikey admits. “Everything that’s happened since we met at one in the morning at the elementary school park, to swimming in the lake with me tonight, all of that and everything that’s happened in between. I loved every part of it, and I never want it to stop.”

“I don’t want it to stop either.” Pete says, smiling. He feels completely comfortable with Mikey around. “I’m finally happy with what’s happening in my life.”

“I’m glad. Can you promise me something?”

“Sure, what?”

“Tomorrow night, and every other time I ask you, you’ll do this with me.”

“Anything, you know that. What is it?” Pete asks, lifting his head out of Mikey’s chest to look him in the eye.

“Meet me by the lake.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AAA!! Last chapter!!! I hope you guys enjoyed this story as much as I did writing it!! If you want to message me about this fic or any of my other fics or just talk to me in general you can contact me at [my tumblr sits-with-cats](http://sits-with-cats.tumblr.com/)   
> Please kudos and comment what you thought about my fic I love hearing what people have to say about my writing and it really does keep me going <3


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